■JVED jy T. B W£LCH.
t>^>Lyf^t.^
THE LIFE
WILLIAM PINKNEY,
BY HIS NEPHEW,
THE KEY. WILLIAM PINKNEY, D.D.
"Tanta vis animi, tantns impetus, tantns dolor, oculis, viiltu, gestu, digito denlqne isto
tuo, Bignificarl solet : tantum est fluinen gravissimorum optimornmqne verborum, tarn
intigrae sententiae, tam yerae, tarn novse, tam sine pigmentis fucoque puerili, ut mihi non solum
tu incendere judicem, sed ipse ardere, videaris. — Cicero de Obatoee.
"His opinions had almost acquired the authority of judicial decisions."
EoB. GooDLOE Hasfeb.
NEW-YOKK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
200 BROADWAY.
MDCCCLIII.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, by
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
in tho Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New-York.
TO
THE BAE OF MAEYLAND,
EVER RENOWNED FOR THE ELOQUENCE AND LEARNING OP ITS
ADVOCATES,
THIS WOEK
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
Maryland has been far more favored by Divine Providence
in her list of illustrious sons, and exciting historic incidents,
than by the pen of skilful and enlightened historians or
faithful and competent biographers. This is just matter
of surprise, and good ground of impeachment. Next to
the production of great men, who inscribe their names upon
the monuments of their country's glory, is the energetic
endeavor to hand down to after ages a true and faithful
record of their deeds ; and, what is of greater importance
still (for deeds lose something of their power to fascinate
and charm by the changing scenes of the present moment),
of their intellectual qualities and moral virtues, which are
the true picture of the man, and make up his claim to an
immortality on the earth.
It is no less the duty than the interest of the State to
be jealous of the glory of the past. It is her treasury of
wealth, from which she may draw largely not only for pre-
sent exigencies but for future advancement. The most
illustrious of the historians of Rome thus wi'ote : — " Nam
ssepe audivi, 0. Maxumum, P. Scipionem, prasterea civitatis
nostra© pr^claros viros solitos ita dicere, cum majorum
imagines intuerentur, vehementissume sibi animum ad vir-
tutem accendi. Scilicet, non ceram illam, neque figuram,
6 PEEFACE.
tantam vim in sese habere ; sed memoria reram gestarum
earn fiammam egregiis viris in pectore crescere neque prius
sedari, quam virtus eorum famam atque gloriam adsequa-
verit."
The very sight of the statues of our ancestors is inspirit-
ing, for though in themselves but cold marble, they have a
voice that speaks at once to the heart and hopes of the
young who are grouped around them. But if mere statues
be thus eloquent and instructive, what must be said of the
life-like and life-reveaHng biography ? If the chisel of the
sculptor, or the pencil of the artist, can accompHsh so won-
derful a work as the retaining here on the earth the image
of departed worth, what may not the pen of the historian
do?
In history we have accomplished much, though not so
much as the rich variety of our material demands ; but in
biography we have scarce made more than our first essay.
Bozman, of old and fragrant memory, has earned just praise
for the facts he has rescued from oblivion ; wliich, while
they diminish naught from the stirring glories of Plymouth
Kock, show conclusively that a higher Kock, of firmer basis
and more broad protecting shade, was laid in this western
world by our forefathers in the colonizing of Maryland —
where liberty in higher form pervaded our charter, and a
more enhghtened toleration was secured to the pioneers of
freedom. The gifted historian of Frederick City has added
another flower to our garden of history that will never fade,
McMahon, our most illustrious living orator, who wears the
robe of our old renown in great names so gracefully, has
given to the country and the world a good pledge of what
PREFACE. 7
her sons can accomplisli in this most difficult field of literary
pursuit. It is deeply to be regretted that his vigorous pen
has ceased to record the glowing deeds of the past, and
sketch with those master-strokes the moral beauty and
intellectual grandeur of her sons, whose names and deeds
are inseparably blended with her history. It is to our
shame and disgrace, that the historian is yet alive, patient
in study, and skilled in all that can give force and beauty
to narrative ; and yet that narrative be not completed. It
is a burning reproach that one of the original thirteen stars
(whose very first scintillations of liberty were the solace and
consolation of the oppressed, and whose peculiar brilliancy
was always meekly blended with that of the blazing galaxy)
is not yet fixed in the firmament of history. We sincerely
hope that the day is not far distant, when the pen of
McMahon shall once more recall to mind the fact that Rome
had her Livy ; and enable us, with the modesty of truth,
to say that Maryland may exultingly point to hers.
But in biography what have we done ? With the ex-
ception of Wirt's Life, by Kennedy, the hand of strangers
has had to write the only Hves of our lamented dead ; and
we all know that a stranger cannot so well gather up the
lights and shades of character as those who, familiarized
with the hearth-stones whence are reflected the daily habits
of the daily life, tread the very soil they trod and illumi-
nated with their glory.
We are not ignorant of the difficulties that compass the
path of those who would fain write biography ; nor are we
insensible to the rashness of the undertaking. We have
not the vanity to suppose that we can execute it with such
skiU as to disarm criticism and win her approval.
8 PREFACE.
Ours is a work of peculiar hazard. We follow in the
steps of one who adorned the republic of letters, and illus-
trated the virtues that belong to the enhghtened and ac-
complished American citizen while he lived ; and, in death,
received the most touching tributes of the admiration of a
sorrowing country — and that too at a time when many of
the most interesting incidents are lost, and some of the
most co]3ious and important written documents that sur-
vived him were mingled in the wreck. We have studiously
collected together all that has been preserved ; and where
we have drawn from oral tradition, we have been cf^-eful to
test the accuracy of each statement by direct and unim-
peachable testimony.
Mr. Pinkney's real character is but little known and
appreciated in the present day. That character we have
endeavored to draw ; and the facts collated more than sus-
tain the justice and accuracy of the portrait. It is not pos-
sible to write such a life as would be most edifying and
pleasing. There is not enough of the requisite material.
We had either to adopt the plan selected, or give up the
idea altogether. The alternative was promptly chosen, for
we thought that the faintest sketch would be better than
nothing.
In the execution of our work we have had occasion now
and then to review the opinions and statements of others ;
and, while we have been careful to deal as tenderly as pos-
sible with their motives, we have unflinchingly exposed what
we deemed to be injustice to the memory of the subject of
our memoir. Passages in his hfe, which were obviously
misunderstood or seemingly misrepresented, have been cleared
PREFACE. 9
up, and his title to tlie admiration and confidence of the
present and future estabhshed, based upon what he was, and
the part he enacted proved him to be. Less than this would
have been gross injustice to his memory — a connivance at the
wrong perpetrated. We know that critics have labored
hard to cry down this habit of defending the character ; and
we are free to admit that there may be vicious extremes to
which it may be pushed ; but, while we vindicate the pro-
priety of the one, we have been careful to guard against the
other. Against but three classes of assailants have we raised
our voice ; and we have met those, not with the weapons of
argument or declamation, so much as with stubborn and
incontrovertible facts.
Some may be tempted to charge us with extravagant
eulogy. We only ask to be judged by our facts. If they
condemn us, we are prepared to plead guilty to the charge
and sue for pardon. If they condemn us not, we may well
challenge the approval of mankind.
It has been said, that he who causes a spire of grass to
grow where none grew before, is a public benefactor. If so,
what shall be said of him who succeeds in setting forth an
illustrious character in its true light. Criticism may sneer
at the style, and denounce the over-estimate of ability, which
pursues an aim above its reach. But surely the endeavor
to accomplish so good a purpose under so many discourage-
ments, and amid such a dearth of materials, may well con-
found the critic, and shield us from his poisoned shafts.
If those "who discommend wiU mend" the work, they
win find me the first to offer them the sincerest tribute of
gratitude ; and may rest assured that none will rejoice more
10 PREFACE.
in a failure, whicli shall secure for William Pinkney a
biographer worthy of his fame, than myself.
A number of public and private letters never before incor-
porated in a biography, some of them never before pub-
lished elsewhere, are now given to the world.
He wrote some most admirable articles, under the sig-
nature of " Decius," in favor of Madison's re-election, and
against the pretensions of De Witt CHnton, which I have
endeavored in vain to secure for publication in this work.
They were known to be his by his more intimate friends.
LIPE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
William Pixkney was born at Annai^olis in the State of
Maryland on tlie 17tli of March, 1764. The place of his
birth was every way worthy of her illustrious son. Situated
on the banks of the Severn, girded in by a belt of waters, al-
most an island, in full view of the noble old Chesapeake,
the paragon of bays ; and surrounded by a sceneiy richly
variegated, of mingled beauty and sublimity, — it is not pos-
sible to look out upon this ancient city, even amid the
touching monuments of her decline, without admiration.
She was, at the period of Avhich I speak, the seat of refine-
ment, elegance, and taste — the Athens of the New World.
Genius and wealth lend their combined attractions to grace
the legend of her glory. She was also the theatre of stir-
ring revolutionary scenes. It was \vithin her precincts
that the offensive and unjust legislation of the mother coun-
try met with a rebuke, full as significant and emphatic as
that which has since given to Boston an immortality of
renown and made her, as it were, the consecrated cradle of
liberty. Young Pinkney loved and honored this the place
of his birth. Possessed of a soul which was peculiarly
attuned to those nobler feelings of our nature which delight
in the thrilling reminiscences and ennobling associations of
the past ; and more than ordinarily susceptible to the power
of local attachments, he always prided himself upon An-
napolis, the place of his birth. His heart clung to it with
pecuhar tenacity even amid the beauties of London. Stand-
12 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
ing on tlie shores of classic Italy, and drinking in, with
every sense, the potent spell that lingers by the spot where
the past so gloriously mingles with the present, he was
often known to look over the wide waste of waters, and sigh
that his eye rested not upon the city washed by Chesa-
peake's broad waves. To wander by the banks of her rivers,
and survey her exquisite natural scenery, was ever his de-
light. It was there he fed his strong natural taste for the
beautiful and sublime, and kindled the flame of his bound-
less ambition. If those banks had a voice, or those grottoes
were now vocal, they woidd, doubtless, echo back the stir-
ring notes of his youthful eloquence. How he loved An-
napolis and treasured through all after years the touching
memory of her beauty, may be ascertained from the follow-
ing passage of one of his published letters,
" In itself the most beautiful, to me the most interesting
spot on earth, I would fain believe that it is destined to en-
joy the honors of old age, without its decrepitude.
" There is not a spot of ground in its neighborhood, which
my memory has not consecrated, and which does not produce
as fancy traces it a thousand retrospections that go directly
to the heart."
Demosthenes was not more proud of Athens nor Cicero
of Eome. Webster was not more proud of Boston than was
WilHam Pinkney of Annapolis. And she was pre-eminent-
ly worthy of his ardent attachment and exulting pride ; for
in all that can give dignity and honor, the charm of patriot-
ism and the fascination of genius to the character of man,
she was at that time most richly endowed,
Mr, Pinkney's ancestors came over from Normandy to
England with William the Conqueror, His father sprung
from one of the most resi)ectable and ancient families of
Britain ; the same that gave to CaroKna some of her most
brUliant and illustrious names. It has been sometimes af-
firmed that his origin was obscure ; but nothing could be
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 13
farther removed from the truth. The elder Pinkney emigra-
ted to the United States, and located himself at Annapohs,
where he Uved in quiet seclusion and illustrated the virtues
that adorned his character. He was a hero in spirit, a man
of indomitable moral courage and the highest moral integri-
ty, who never sacrificed conscience to expediency, and never
yielded up its dictates but to clear convictions of duty. He
adhered with a mistaken but honest firmness to the cause
of the mother countiy, and sufiered severely the coflse-
quences of his conscientiousness. Even those who may be
disposed to censure his adherence to the oath he had taken
as a subject of the British crown, must admire the sterling
and heroic spirit he displayed, in sacrificing his ease and com-
fort and fortune to what he believed to be his duty, and con-
fronting, unawed and unappalled, the violent outbreaks of
the popular feeling, that branded his conduct as unpatriotic
and disgraceful. He died as he lived, without a stain upon
his honor, the victim of a mistaken sense of duty. The
mother of young Pinkney was a lady of most vigorous un-
derstanding and tender sensibilities. Her image was the
guiding star of his destiny. He always spoke of her as the in-
strument, under Providence, of all that gave him any title to
public confidence and esteem. She watched over his infant
years with the fondest solicitude, and aided by her pious
counsel and beautiful example in the development of his
mind and heart. It was his misfortune to lose her fostering
care when but a boy ; and he retained, through all after-life,
the freshest recollection of her many virtues and superior in-
tellect, and never mentioned her name but with deepest vener-
ation and truest and most heartfelt afiection. Poverty was the
portion of his early childhood. His father's property con-
fiscated by the government, whose infant struggles at once en-
listed his warmest sympathies, he was thrown penniless on the
world. Without money or the patronage money brings with
it, through exertions all his own, the giant resolve to be
14 LIFE OF WILLIAM PIXKNEY.
something and do something to reflect some new lustre on
the city and State of his birth — he pushed on in his enter-
prising career with a steadiness and industry, that were the
surest pledge of success.
Concerning the early education of Mr. Pinkney, there has
been much misapprehension. During the lifetime of his father,
and before his troubles began, no expense was spared in secur-
ing for him the best and most skilful instruction. He was
sent to King William school, a first class academy, founded
in 1696. "It stood on the south side of the State House,
and is said to have been a plain building, containing school-
rooms and apartments for the teacher and his family." At
the time he entered its walls, it was under the government
of a gentleman by the name of Bref-hard, who was a first-
rate scholar and pre-eminently fitted to have charge of youth.
Perceiving the extraordinary abilities of liis young pupil, Mr.
Bref-hard took uncommon pains in imparting to him the ru-
diments of a first-rate education. He left school about the
age of thirteen — but his teacher, conscious of the uncommon
promise of his interesting charge, continued to give him pri-
vate lessons at his own house ; and watched with unbounded
interest the development of his mind, as long as he remained
in the country. Tliis gentleman formed for his pupil a warm
personal friendship, which was never afterwards withdra-svn.
That he received a first-rate English education and was well
grounded in the classics is indisputable ; but it is more than
probable, that his reading in the classics at that early period
was not extensive, as he did not long continue to enjoy those
invaluable privileges.
This school has been sometimes confounded with St.
John's College, and therefore that institution has been not
unfrequently regarded as his alma mater. The misappre-
hension no doubt originated in the fact, that the funds
of King WiUiam school were by an act of assembly con-
signed in 1785 to St. John's College. The coUege was found-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 15
ed in 1784 and opened and dedicated in 1789 "; so that the
school may be said truly to have been merged in the college.
For St. John's Mr. Pinkney felt a strong attachment.
It was with not less pride than pleasure that he saw her
become the boast and pride of Maryland ; and witnessed her
distinguished success in rewarding the State's hberal patron-
age by returning to her bosom, sons who were quaHfied, by
profound and elegant scholarship and high toned manly prin-
ciples, to guide and control her future destinies. This ven-
erable edifice still stands, and fulfils her important mission.
The strong hand of power struck her down in her bright ca-
reer, but Mr. Pinkney left his indignant and decisive protest
against the mad policy of her foes, by pronouncing the day,
that witnessed her degradation, the darkest Maryland had
known. Old St. John's once more enjoys the fostering care
of the State, and prosecutes with quiet and unobtrusive dig-
nity her allotted work.
Academic instruction was all, then, that the subject of this
memoir enjoyed. And even in academic groves he was per-
mitted to rove but for a few fleeting years. While a resi-
dent in London it is well known that he emj^loyed his leisure
moments in the study of the Latin language and the critical
study of his own. Finding himself far behind the classical
attainments of the prominent men of England, he devoted
time and attention, under the superintendence of a private
tutor, to the renewal of those studies ; and never rested sat-
isfied until he had made up all deficiencies. He became an
admirable Latin scholar, and acquired a knowledge of liis
own tongue, singularly accurate and discriminating, rarely
if ever equalled, never excelled. Unwilling to appear in the
learned and polite circles of English scholars ignorant ; and
unwilling to afiect a knowledge he did not possess, he at that
late period put himself to school, and thought it no degrada-
tion to assume the attitude of a learner, although the rep-
resentative of one of the proudest nations of the world, and
16 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
placed in almost constant contact with the most experienced
statesmen and profound jurists of another.
There are many floating traditions, which conspired to
give to his early years the pledge of his future vast renown.
But still for the most part, his youth was passed in the
struggles of pride and a lofty aspiration with the rough and
appalling realities of life, when poverty settles down, like
night upon the sea, on the youthful aspirant.
His first thoughts were directed to medicine. He enter-
ed the office of Dr. Dorsey and pursued his studies for a
short time.
Discovering that it was an uncongenial pursuit, he very
soon abandoned it for that, which owned him pre-eminent.
Judge Chase, of distinguished memory, was his patron and
his friend. He studied in his office, and reoeived many fa-
cilities in the accomplishment of his desires in tliis new and
untried field, from that able jurist ; which he lived to repay
in after years to Chase's descendants. In the bright cata-
logue of the illustrious men (whose names are still the boast
and ornament of the Maryland bar) Pinkney felt the exciting
stimulus for exertion. The field of fame was preoccupied.
Laurels were strewed all around him in wild profusion, .worn
by other brows and kept in unfading lustre by their energetic
eflForts. In the splendors of Dulany, her setting luminary
(one of the most remarkable men of his age), and in the
meridian blaze of her Chase and Martin, who were just then
culminating to their zenith, he felt as the sons of genius
ever feel, whose steppings are in an illuminated pathway,
that those, who would follow in their steps, must give their
days and nights to study and emulate their greatness by em-
ulating their love of labor. He studied for the mastery.
His aim was high from the start, and he never withdrew his
eye from the goal. In the struggles of the debating club,
with his young associates around him (each one doing his
utmost to eclipse his fellows and win the palm of ascenden-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 17
cy against all competitors), Pinkney easily acquired an envia-
ble pre-eminence ; and yet he did not dare even then to enjo}
it in ease. He was indefatigable as a student. He studied
the grand principles of the law in the writings of its pro-
foundest and deepest expounders ; and in those earliest strug-
gles, where he acquired his training for the more earnest con-
flicts of the forum, he poured forth all his powers, and often
extorted praise from the admiring crowd, who were the de-
lighted spectators of those youthful contests.
He was admitted to the bar in 1786. Harford county
was chosen as the arena of his fii'st professional efforts. She
received and rewarded the young adventurer. She saw his
worth and appreciated it. In April, 1788 (but two years
after liis settlement in the county), he was elected a delegate
to the convention of the State of Maryland, which ratified
the constitution of the United States. This was the begin-
ning of his illustrious public career. Unhappily there is no
record preserved of the debates of that body, and consequent-
ly we are not able to determine what part young Pinkney
took in its deliberations, or in what way he signalized him-
self. But the bare privilege of sitting in such a body, and
mingling in the councils of the fathers of the Kepublic, and
recording an affirmative vote in the adoption of such an in-
strument as the constitution of the United States — the being
considered by so intelligent a constituency (among whom he
had been but two years a resident) worthy of so high and
responsible a post, was honor enough and distinction enough
for so young a man. There seems to be, to my mind at least,
a beautiful and appropriate coincidence in the beginning and
the close of Pinkney's career. It opened amid the splendors
of the new formed constitution (that wise substitute for the
impotent and inadequate confederation) ; and it closed in the
very act of giving a last and finishing exhibition of the
truest, safest, profoundest principles of its interpretation.
In October, 1788, he was elected a member of the House
2
18 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of Delegates. In those days Maryland had cause to be proud
of that body. They were men chosen for their intelligence,
purity, patriotism, learning and eloquence. He there met
with competition to test the strength of the strongest, and
fire the enthusiasm of the most aspiring. His style of speak-
ing is represented by those who were competent to judge,
to have been singularly rich and attractive. With a voice
of uncommon melody and power, an elocution beautifully
accurate, and action gTaceful and impressive, he held the
listening crowds upon his tongue in rapt astonishment and
wonder. The tradition is still alive in Maryland, wliich
echoes the wide-spread rumor of his fame ; and those are still
living, known to tliis writer, who heard from competent lips
the confident prediction of his future pre-eminence.
It was there he raised his voice, in bold and manly tone,
against the law that would deny to the holder of slaves
the right of manumission. Twice on the floor of the House,
in speeches of considerable power and fervid eloquence, he
deprecated the insertion of such an odious and despicable
principle in the State's legislation. The sentiments deliver-
ed on that occasion were such as did infinite credit to his
heart. They indicated a spirit that shunned not the respon-
sibility of speaking out its honest opinions and comdctions
of public policy, without reserve or equivocation. But those
opinions and convictions were not in disloyalty to the Union
or in contravention of the constitution. In advocating the
right of the power to manumit, and holding up to universal
scorn and rebrobation the law that would have laid low that
right, Mr, Pinkney was speaking to Marylanders on a sub-
ject exclusively then* own. He was addressing himself to the
representatives of a Soutliern State in relation to an institu-
tion purely local, and enforcing the wisdom and propriety of
clemency and moderation in the legislation about to be atlopt-
ed. I dwell upon this, because the views of Mr. Pinkney
have been singularly misconceived and misrepresented on the
LIFE OF WILLIAM PIKKNEY. 19
floor of the American Senate. His name has been identified
with modern abolitionism. The speeches of his youth have
been arrayed against the grand effort in the Missouri compro-
mise in the maturity of his years ; with what show of justice
will be seen, when we compare the positions in which he stood
in the one case and the other. In the Legislature of Maryland,
he raised his voice against what appeared to him to be cruel
and oppressive legislation, touching an institution all her
own, within the express terms and spirit of the constitution.
He implored Marylanders to do, what it was perfectly com-
petent for them to do with their OAvn, in the spirit of an en-
lightened and elevated humanity. There was not one word
uttered against the clear constitutional rights of a sovereign
State of this Union — not one ^jrinciple advanced that was in
violation of that great constitutional compromise. He was
pleading on Maryland soil with Marylanders, for the exercise
of a clemency and justice in her legislation, that was per-
fectly in consonance with her constitutional rights and jiriv-
ileges. He who can discover any sort of affinity between
this earnest remonstrance, addressed to the constitutional
authorities of a sovereign State, and the revolutionary and
inflammatoiy appeals of abolitionism, which assail constitu-
tional j)rerogatives and war upon State sovereignty, possess-
es a power of tracing resemblances between things that are
intrinsically unhke ; and confounds all the existing and well
estabhshed distinctions that divide contrarieties from each
other.
In the Missouri compromise, on the floor of the Ameri-
can Senate, Mr. Pinkney maintained the right of the State
under the constitution to regulate and control this institution
for itself, and denied the power of Congress to place any re-
striction upon a State applying for admission. There is no
antagonism between the views of Mr. Pinkney dm-ing any
period of his public career upon this delicate and important
subject. He was too zealous and consistent a supporter of
20 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET,
the constitution to have ever sanctioned aggression, either of
the States upon the general government or the general gov-
ernment upon the States, Those who have invoked his
name to the support of principles, that are destructive of the
peace, harmony, and perpetuity of the Union, have done
great injustice to his memory ; and for lack of knowledge or
want of reflection have failed to distinguish between things
essentially diverse. The perpetration of the injustice is not
so wonderful as the failure to rectify it when pointed out.
At this early period of his professional and legislative
career, he was noted for the careless simplicity of his dress
and manners ; the very opposite of the punctilious and stu-
dious elegance and attention to dress, which he acquired in
foreign courts, to avoid singularity, and which he retained to
the close of life.
In 1789 Mr. Pinkney was united to Miss Ann Maria,
daughter of John Rodgers, Esq., of Havre de Grace, and sis-
ter of Commodore John Rodgers ; a man of bold, chivalrous
spirit, who never tarnished the flag under which he sailed,
and lost no opportunity of seeking to plant it in triumph,
whenever he navigated the seas.
Ten children were the fruit of this marriage, all of whom,
with the beautiful and accomphshed lady who united her
happiness and destiny to his, survived him. Mrs. Pinkney
lived to an honorable old age ; and her dechning years,
though saddened by severe bodily infirmity, were soothed by
those who best knew her worth, until death gently closed
the scene. She was in early life the picture of health and
feminiae beauty. Her easy manner, afi'ability of disposition,
and strong vigorous intellect, eminently qualified her to
adorn the social position she was called to fill, and fitted
her to cheer the anxious careworn pilgrimage of her illus-
trious consort. She paid his memory the most precious trib-
ute of afiection and respect, and sought and found, in the
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 21
bosom of her family and a few select and tried fiiends, the
solace of her widowhood.
In 1790 he was elected a member of Congress by the
citizens of his adopted county. His election was contested,
but, after a most powerful and conclusive argument in his
own behalf, ratified and confirmed. He however subsequently
declined the honor for reasons of a prudential and private
nature.
In 1792 he was elected a member of the Executive Council
of Maryland, of which he was for a time the president. This
position of great responsibility, under the old Constitution,
he filled with increasing reputation and ability.
In 1796 he was appointed commissioner to England un-
der the seventh article of Jay's treaty in connection with Mr.
Gore. This was a truly honorable appointment, the more
honorable because conferred without solicitation by the dis-
crimination of a Washington, who in his own State was
surrounded by the very stars of the Kepublic, and in the
bestowment of office looked to the qualifications, and refused
to be swayed in his choice by naiTow, contracted or local pre-
judices ; which alas ! in our day too much influence executive
patronage. OflScial position adds nothing to the intrinsic
intellectual power and moral greatness of a man. It only
affords a sphere for the display of the talent, and exhibition
of the high qualities for rule that are possessed. It does
not enrich or endow. It only developes. But stiU in those
early days it was a sure and unerring indication of talent ;
for office was then confeiTcd, not sought, the reward of dis-
tinction, not the price of servile partisanship. The manner
in which he discharged the duties of his high functions during
this embassage is matter of history; and his recorded opinions
are splendid specimens of profound and eloquent argumen-
tation, worthy of the country he represented and the distin-
guished legal ability that characterized the discussion he
was called upon in part to adjudicate. He also rendered
22 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
most valuable service to the State of Maryland in recoveiing
800,000 dollars, which was acknowledged in a pubHc vote of
thanks by the Legislature.
Mr. Pinkney's private correspondence during the period
of his absence on this mission is very beautiful and interest-
ing. Although much of it has been unhappily lost, it is in
my power to add a few letters, that have never before graced
the pages of any preceding biograjihy. Dr. Johnson in his
life of Pope admonishes us that "epistolary intercourse affords
the strongest temptation to fallacy and sojihistication," and
scouts the idea that "the true character of men maybe
found in their letters." There is doubtless much force and
truth in the views of the venerable Doctor ; but still we
incHne to the opinion of another of England's noble writers
" that the comparison of letters, from whatever hand, will
assist materially in estimating the disposition as well as the
talents of a writer." A criterion it is ; — ^l3ut one which must
be narrowly watched, entertained with caution, and carefully
weighed. In interweaving 2)ortions of Mr. Pinkney's letters
into this memoir, I do not so much design to illustrate
character as to give currency to his views and reflections on
men and things. A rich variety was put into the hands of
Mr. Wheaton, consisting of letters from England, Naples,
Kussia, and Italy, written to individuals in different parts
of the country and never designed for the perusal of any but
the warm, tried friends of his heart. Of those that were
not pubhshed (among which were some of the most beautifid)
none, that I know of, were returned to his friends. A few
have been received from unexpected quarters ', these will be
read with satisfaction, and leave an increased regret that
the lost cannot be now recovered. There is one noble quality
in those letters, viz., their freedom from haughty egotism and
bitter acrimony. There is no effort at what may be called
fine writing ; no gush of heart-reveahng in them. They
are the natural, unaffected, artless interchange of thought.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKXET. 23
To entertain, please and instruct, was his end and aim — to
describe what he saw and felt, was his simple, single-minded
desire. We read without effort, and rise from the perusal,
charmed with their natural eloquence, simplicity and beauty.
We listen to his first impressions of England and her great
and distinguished sons, and find them delivered with freedom,
but in a spuit of fiiendly criticism. He held the mind of
Pitt in august admiration. He admired Wilbeiforce ; revered
his character, and secured his warmest friendship and most
unbounded admiration.^ He duly appreciated the power
and skill of the Bench and Bar of that great countiy; and
showed his high respect for parliamentary eloquence by a
patient and unflagging attendance upon its debates.
ME. PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER JONATHAN.
" LoxDox, 26/A August, 179(5.
" Dear J. : — We are now London housekeepers. I found
it would not answer to take lodgings unless we meant to do
penance instead of being comfortable. Our present residence
is merely temporaiy. I have taken a short lease of a new
house in Upper Guilford-street, No. 5, to which we shall re-
move in about six weeks. The situation is any, genteel,
and convenient enough to the commissioner's office. We are
compelled to live handsomely, to avoid singularity; but our
view is stiU to be as economical as the requisite style of
living will admit. We do not, and shall not want for the
most respectable and agreeable society. The American
families here are on the most friendly and intimate footing
with us, and we have as many English acquaintances as we
desire. In short, we may pass our time here (for a few
years to come) with considerable satisfaction — not so happily,
indeed, as at Annapolis, but still with much comfort and
many gratifications. My health is apparently bettered, and
Mrs. P. is e\idently mendiog, — but we have not yet had
24 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
sufficient experience of the climate to be able to conjecture
its future effects on us. The child continues well.
" Our namesake (the late American Minister) is an amia-
ble man. We have been much with him, and have received
from him every possible attention. He unites with an ex-
cellent understanding the most pleasing manners, and is at
once the man of sense and the pohshed gentleman. Every
body speaks well of him, and deservedly. There is no doubt
of our relationship. His family came from the North — I
think from Durham, where he tells me he still has relations.
The loss of his wife appears to have affected him deeply, and
has doubtless occasioned his anxiety to return to America.
He leaves us soon, and I am sorry that he does so.
" Yesterday we appointed the fifth commissioner hy lot.
He is an American (Colonel John Trumbull), and was secre-
tary to Mr. Jay, when envoy at this court. I made the
draft. We all qualified this morning before the Lord Mayor,
and shall commence business very soon. Every thing in re-
lation to the commission wears at present a favorable aspect,
and I have now expectations of being able to return to my
friends within a period much shorter than I had ventured to
hope for.
"2d Sept. 1796, P. S.— Your letterof the 26th June has
just reached me. Be assured that nothing can diminish my
attachment to Annapolis. I have nothing to complain of
from the inhabitants ; on the contrary, they have done me
honor beyond my merit. I feel the worth of their atten-
tions, and shall never lose the grateful recollection of them.
They have treated me with flattering and friendly distinc-
tions, and I will never give them cause to regret it. In a
word, the hope of once more becoming an inhabitant of my
native city forms one of my greatest pleasures. If I cannot
be hajipy there, I cannot be happy any where. If I were to
settle in any other place, interest, not inclination, must give
rise to it. I know not where the wish of procuring a com-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 25
petence may hereafter fix me ; but if that competence can
be obtained at AnnapoKs, there will I labor for it.
"I intended to have written to Mr, James Williams, but
have been so much interrupted and engaged as not to be able
to do so. Indeed I have no subject for a letter but what is
exhausted in this. His friendly offices on the eve of my
departure, proved the goodness of his heart, and made a deep
impression on mine. Let me be remembered to him in the
warmest terms. I will write to all my friends in due time,
and in the interim tell them to write to me — a letter is now
of real value to me.
"Sept. 18th, P. S. — I missed the opportunity of sending
my letter, and do not now know when I shall have another.
" The shooting season began here the 15th inst., but I
have not yet had a gun in hand. I envy Dr. Sheaff the
sport he will have in the neighborhood of Annapolis. There
can be none in this country to equal it.
" Adieu : if I keep my letter by me much longer, it wiU
become a volume of postscripts.
" October 14th. — I have just got yours of the 14th Aug.
It is kind in you to write thus often. Persevere in a prac-
tice so well begun, and you will oblige me highly. The
commissioners commenced business the 10th inst. I was
presented to the King on Wednesday last at St. James's.
It was necessary, and I am glad it was, for while I am here
I wish to see as much as possible, I was in the House of
Lords at the opening of Parliament, and heard his majesty
deliver his speech ; but I was not able to hear the debate
upon it in the House of Commons, as I wished to do. I have
attended the theatre pretty often, and have seen all their
great performers. Be assured that we are accustomed in
America to rate their excellence too high. There is hardly
an exhibition in London which report does not exaggerate to
us. I was led to expect more than I have been able to find.
There are subjects, how^ever, upon which I have not been
26 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
disappointed ; the beauty and flourishing appearance of the
country — the excellence of the roads — the extent and perfec-
tion of their various manufactures — the enormous stock of
individual wealth which town and country exhibits, &c., &c.,
cannot be too strongly anticipated."
MR. PINKNEY TO THE HON. VANZ MURKY.
London, February 9tli, I'ldl.
" My Dear Sir : — I thank you for requesting to hear
from me, but did not intend to wait for such a request. I
wished to feel a little at home before I troubled you with a
letter — and a stranger in London continues a stranger for
some time. I find it difficult, even now, to accommodate
myself to a world in all respects new to me. My habits
were at variance with a London life, and habits contracted at
an early period, and long cherished, are stubborn things. I
have, however, made a virtue of necessity, and struggled with
considerable industry to like what I must submit to whether
I like it or not. Still I cannot look back upon my own
country without strong regrets. Absence has consecrated
and swelled into importance the veriest trifles I have left be-
hind me. You have doubtless experienced this enthusiastic
retrospect, and know with what soft and mellow coloiings
imagination paints the past in a situation like mine, and
how the visionary picture indisposes one to the scenes of the
moment. Upon the whole, however (when I can keep down
this picture drawing propensity), I manage better than I ex-
pected. I have found here those whom it would be want of
liberality not to esteem. I have found much to amuse and
more to instruct me.
" Our circle of acquaintance is a pleasant one, and as
extensive as we wish it ; and if I did not find some friends,
too, in such a place as London, I should be afraid that I did
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 27
not deserve any. In short, my time passes agreeably , though
not so happily as in Maryland : my fancy is more amused
and my understanding more widely occupied, but the heart
is not so much interested.
"It is the misfortune of almost all travellers, that they
set out with expectations so extravagant that their gratifica-
tion is absolutely impossible. This was in great measm*e
my case, and the consequence has been frequent disappoint-
ment. I presume it is to be attributed to my too sanguine
anticipation, that I have seen Mrs. Siddons in her most
favonte character without emotion or approbation — that I
have heard Mr. Fox on the most interesting and weighty
subjects, without discovering that he is an orator — that I
have heard Mr. Grey on the same occasions, without thinking
him above mediocrity — in short, that I have seen and heard
much that I was told I should admire, without admiring it
at aU. Mr. Pitt indeed has not disappointed me. He is
truly a wonderful man. I never heard so clear and masterly
a reasoner, or a more effectual declaimer. They have all
one fault, however. They do not understand the power
which may be given to the human voice by tones and modu-
lations. In consequence of our public character. Gore and
myself are allowed to sit under the gallery of the House of
Commons — a privilege of which you will suppose I do not
omit to avail myself — I could sit there for ever to hsten to
Mr. Pitt. In argument he is beyond example correct and
perspicuous — and in declamation energetic and commanding.
His style might serve as a model of classical elegance, and
has no defect, unless it be that it is sometimes overloaded
with parentheses. You have seen and heard him, and there-
fore need not be told that his manner is agaitist him — that
his voice is full and impressive and his articulation unusually
distinct. I thought at first that his pronunciation was too
precise and analytic. It is, in fact, a sort of spelling pro-
nunciation, that gives unnecessary body and importance to
28 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
every syllable ; but I am now familiarized to this scholastic
particularity, and hardly feel its impropriety. I observe that
he, as well as Mr. Fox, closes his periods with a cadence
unknown in America. I think it unmusical and harsh. It
is, however, so completely fashionable, that you meet with it
even in Westminster Hall. Of Mr. Fox, I think that he
has a vigorous mind — but that he is a speaker in spite of
nature and his stars. He is, notwithstanding, generally pow-
erful in debate. I have heard Mr. Erskine once — in the
House of Commons. I thought nothing of him, but I am
assured by good judges that at tJie Bar he is formidable, and
indeed eloquent, although he makes no figure in parliament.
I do not understand this — but I know one half of the fact to
be true in Mr. Erskine's case.
" Mr. Secretary Dundas is mediocre. I incline to think
that in America the ait of speaking is more advanced than
any other country. We have, it is true, swarms of j^tvaters,
but we have also more (I mean a greater number of) able
speakers than are to be found here or elsewhere. The Bar,
in this country, are sound lawyers, but nothing more. In
America they are something more. Perhaps in all this I
make my estimate a little too i)etulantly, and with too much
pride of country about me ; but I am writing to you who
have the same prejudices, and can make allowance for me.
" You will have heard, before my letter reaches you, of
the wonderful victory obtained by Bonaparte over the fifth
army of the Emperor in Italy — 23,000 prisoners and 6,000
slain ! It is almost beyond belief — and we have yet nothing
upon which to ground belief but the French accounts. They
state, however, the official dispatches of Bonaparte to the
Directory — and there seems to be no reason to doubt them.
If they be true, the fate of Italy is decided. Wurmser,
however, still holds out in Mantua — ^but it is uncertain
whether Alvinzi succeeded in throwing provisions into the
<»-arrison or not. That Wurmser was in great want of pro-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 29
visions is certain, and to relieve liim in this respect was the
great object of the attack of the Austrians on Bonaparte.
" You will also have heard of the attempt by the French
to make a descent on Ireland, The weather defeated it ;
but the greatest part of the vessels sent on this wild expedi-
tion have returned safe to France, AVe do not know precise-
ly how Mr, Pinkney stands at Paris. He has not been re-
ceived, and the papers here state that he is about to leave
Paris for Amsterdam, to wait the orders of his government ;
but this wants confirmation.
" The Emperor of Kussia seems to embarrass all the bel-
ligerents. An universal pacification is supposed to be his
object. He has much in his power ; and it is fervently to be
wished that he may make a proper use of his situation.
" Our commission has experienced some unexpected em-
baiTassments, but the government has removed them in a
way highly honorable and satisfactory. The king's agent
objected to our jurisdiction in a case — a leading feature of
which was that the Lords Commissioners of appeal had af-
firmed the original condemnation. When the fifth commis-
sioner, Gore, and myself were ready to overrule this objection,
our right to decide upon our oion jurisdiction was brought
into question ! The government has said that both points
were against those who started them, and we are now pros-
perously imder way again. I have no fears of a fair execu-
tion of the 7th article by this country.
" This letter is becoming so unreasonably long, that I
will only add that I am in every sense of the word your sin-
cere friend.
" P. S. — When you go to Baltimore, if you should have
any curiosity to know the precise natm'e of the embarrass-
ments above alluded to, Mr. Chase will show you an explana-
tion of them which I send him by the same vessel which car-
ries this ; be good enough to write to me as often as your
leisure will allow. Mr. McDonald (one of the commissioners
30 LIFE or WILLIAM PINKNEY.
on the part of this government UDder the 6th article of the
Treaty), who is just on the point of saiUng for America, I am
acquainted with. If you should meet him, I need not
ask you to attend to him when I inform you that he is an
amiable, well-informed gentleman, and cames with him the
best disposition towards our country."
MR. PINKNEY TO HIS BEOTHER JONATHAN,
"LoN-Do\, 2Uh April, 1799.
" Dear J. : — I have received your letter of the 4tli of
March, inclosing one for Mr. Trumbull ; but that of the
I7th of April, covering a duplicate of Mr. Trumbull's letter,
I have not received. Mr. T. has charged me with his thanks
for your attention, and will, I presume, write to you him-
self.
" I am grieved by the style of your letter. If I have
neglected you, it has not been from want of affection or for-
getfulness of what I owe to your worth. I did not know
that it would be acceptable to you to hear very often or very
fully from me ; and if on that account I have sometimes
made you trust to others for tidings of me, and at other
times have wiitten rather scantily on subjects that might
have been interesting to you, I ask to be forgiven.
" To say the truth, a long letter of a mere friendly com-
plexion is not easily made. It would be idle to give you in
such a letter the news of the moment, for the news would
cease to be so before the letter could reach you ; and I should
fatigue you to death if I were to doom you to read accounts
of London amusements, or of the manner in which I pass my
time. Such details woidd soon have no novelty to recom-
mend them, and would lose all attraction.
" I have seen in this country, and continue to see much
that deserves the attention of him that would be wise or
LIFE OF WILLIAM PIKKNEY. 31
happy ; but I would prefer making all this the subject of
conversation, when Providence shall permit us to meet again,
to i)utting it imperfectly on paper for your perusal when we
are separated. There is not perhaps a more dangerous thing
for him who aims at consistency, or at least the appearance
of it, than to hasten to record impressions as they are made
upon his mind by a state of things to which he has not been
accustomed, and to give that record out of his own posses-
sion. I have made conclusions here, from time to time, which
I have afterwards discarded as absurd ; and I could wish
that some of these conclusions did not show themselves in
more than one of the letters I have occasionally written to
my friends. I have made false estimates of men and things,
and have corrected them as I have been able ; in this there
was nothing to blush for, for who is there that can say he
has not done the same ? But I confess that I do feel some
little regret, when I remember that I have sent a few (though
to say the truth, very fete) of those estimates across the
Atlantic, as indisputably accurate, and have either deceived
those to whom they were sent, or afforded them grounds for
thinking me a precipitate or superficial observer. The con-
sciousness of this has indisposed me to a repetition of simi-
lar conduct ; and I have desired so to write in future as to
be able to change ill-founded opmions without the hazard of
being convicted of capriciousness or folly. You will observe
that I am all this time endeavoring to make my peace with
you on the score of your complaint of negligence ; but after
all, I must in great measure rely upon your disposition to
bear with my faults, and to overlook those you cannot fully
acquit, I must not, however, omit to state my belief that you
do not receive all the letters I send you, and of course that
I appear to you more culpable than I really am.
'•' I wish I could tell you when I shall be likely to see
you ; although my time passes in a way highly gratifying, I
am anxious to return. Our acquaintance has lately very
32 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
much enlarged itself, and our situation is altogether peculiar-
ly pleasant for foreigners ; but I sigh now and then for home.
I am told I am considerably altered since I came here, and I
incline to think there is some foundation for it ; but I shall
not grow much wiser or better by a longer stay. I am be-
coming familiar with almost every thing around me, and do
not look out upon life with as much intentness of observa-
tion as heretofore, and of course I am now rather confirming
former acquisitions of knowledge than laying in new stores
for the future — I begin to languish for my profession — I want
active employment. The business of the commission does
not occupy me sufiiciently, and visiting, &c., with the aid of
much reading, cannot supply the deficiency. My time is al-
ways filled in some way or other ; but I think I should be
the better for a speech now and then. Perhaps another
twelvemonth may give me the opportunity of making speeches
till I get tired of them — and tire others too.
" There are some respects in which it may be better that
I should remain here a little longer ; my health, though
greatly mended, is still delicate — I look better than I am ;
and perhaps a summer at Brighton or Cheltenham may make
me stronger. The last winter has been unfavorable to me,
by afiecting my stomach severely, and I have at this mo-
ment the same aflection in a less degree accompanied with a
considerable headache. I ought to have good health, for I
take pains to acquire it ; and have even gone so far as to
abandon the use of tobacco, to which I was once a slave. It
is now about eighteen months since I have tasted this per-
nicious weed ; but I did not forbear the use of it solely on
account of my health ; I found that it was considered here
as a vulgar habit, which he who desired society must discard."
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 33
MK. PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, \Uh February, 1800.
** Dear J. : — It is now so long since I have had a hne
from you that I must conclude I have heen unlucky enough
to give you offence, for which it is necessary I should atone.
What it can he I have no means of conjecturing ; but let it
be what it may, you ought to believe that it has been wholly
accidental. You complained to me some time ago that I was a
negligent correspondent ; I explained the cause, and asked to
be forgiven. If that explanation did not satisfy you, at
least my prayer of pardon had some claim to be well receiv-
ed. I think I know you so well that I may venture to be
certain you are not angry with me for the old reason. There
must be some neiv ground of exception. Let me know it, I
entreat you, and I will make amends as far as I am able. I
had indeed hoped that it would not be for ordinary matters
that you would forget my claims to your friendship, if not
your affection. I had supposed that you would not lightly
have been induced to treat me as a stranger ; and to substi-
tute the cold intercourse of ceremony for that of the heart.
Why will you allow me to be disappointed in expectations so
reasonable, and so justly founded on the natural goodness of
your disposition, and the soundness of your understanding ?
Can you imagine that I do not recollect how much I am in-
debted to your kindness on various occasions, and how strong
is your title to my attachment and respect ? If I have ap-
peared to sHght your letters by sometimes giving them short
answers, and sometimes delaying to give them any, can you
think so meanly of me as to suppose that therefore I have
not placed a proper value on them and you ? I declare to
God that if you have made this supposition, you have been
unjust both to yourself and me. There is not a person on
earth for whom I have a more warm and sincere regard, nor
3
34 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY.
is there one whose correspondence, while you permitted it to
last, was more truly grateful to me. I beg you, therefore,
to resume it, and to resume it cordially. But if, after all,
you are so different from yourself as to persist in regarding
me as one who has no better ties upon you than the rest of
the world, at least tell me why it is that this must be so.
" Of the late revolution in France and of Bonaparte's
advances to negotiation, with the rejection of these advances,
you will have heard before this can reach you. I was pres-
ent very lately in the House of Commons at the debate on
the rejection of these overtures. So able and eloquent a
speech as Mr. Pitt's on that occasion I never witnessed. Ex-
perience only can decide how far the conduct he vindicated
was wise. Administration have undoubtedly sanguine hopes
of restoring the House of Bourbon ; and prodigious efforts
will be made during the next campaign with that object. I
do not think that this will succeed. The co-operation of
Kussia still remains equivocal; but even if Russia should
give all her strength to the confederacy, it will not have
power to force upon France the ancient dynasty of that coun-
try with all the consequences inseparable from it. The present
government of that ill-fated nation is a mockery — a rank
usurpation by which political freedom is annihilated ; but it
is a government of energj^, and will be made yet more so by
an avowed attempt to overturn it by a foreign anny in fa-
vor of the exiled family. This is my opinion ; but the war
in Europe has so often changed its aspect against all calcula-
tion that prophecies about its future results, are hardly worth
the making. The death of General Washington has ascer-
tained how greatly he was every where admired. The pane-
gyrics that all parties here have combined to bestow upon
his character have equalled those in America.
" P. S. — As our commission is at a stand on account of
the disagreements under the American commission, I can
form no guess as to the probable time of my return. There
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 35
is little ]3rospect, however, of its being very soon. I must be
patient, and am determined to see it out ; but I wish most
ardently to revisit my country and my friends, I think it
likely that my brother commissioner. Gore, will take a trip
to America next summer, and come back in the course of
the autumn. I am afraid we shall both have leisure enough
for a voyage to the East Indies. I have nothing to do here
but to visit, read, write, and so forth. In this idle course I
certainly grow older and perhaps a little wiser ; but T am
doing nothing to expedite my return.
'•' Pray can you make out to send me a box of Spanish
cigars ? If you can, I will thank you ; for I find it benefi-
cial to smoke a cigar or two before I go to bed. This I do
by stealth, and in a room devoted to that purpose ; for smok-
ing here is considered a most ungentlemanlike practice. Hav-
ing left off chevsdng tobacco, which was prejudicial to me, I
have taken up the habit of smoking to a very limited extent
in lieu of it ; and as I find it serviceable to me, and nohody
knows it, I think I shall continue it. Kemember me affec-
tionately to Ninian, and tell him I mean to write to him
soon. Mrs. Pinkney hears that Wilham is able to write
something like a letter. If this be so, she begs you will re-
quest Ninian to make him write to her."
MR. PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, August 2lth, 1800.
" Dear J. : I received your letter of the 27th May, while
in the country, and delayed answering it tiU my return to
town. For your good intentions relative to the cigars, I am
much obliged to you, and I heartily wish it was in my power
to thank you for the cigars themselves, of which I have heard
nothing otherwise than in your letter. Perhaps I may stiU
get them — ^but I have not much hopes. Make my acknowl-
36 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
edgments to Mr. Williams for the box you speak of as be-
ing a present from him. As there is no person for whom I
feel a more wann and sincere regard, and upon whose friend-
ship I more value myself, you may be assured that this little
proof of his recollection gives me the greatest pleasure. I
shall not easily forget the many kind attentions I have re-
ceived from him ; nor can I ever be more happy than when
an opportunity shall occur of showing the sense I entertain
of them.
" Whether the justification you offer for ceasing to write
to me is a sound one or not, it is not worth while to inquire.
You have written at last, and this puts out of the question
all past omissions. Perhaps we have been both to blame —
or perhaps the fault has been wholly mine. I will not dis-
pute with you on this point, but I entreat that in future it
may be understood between us that trifles are not to be
allowed to bring into doubt our regard for each other, and
that our intercourse is not to be regulated by the rules of a
rigorous ceremony. While I admit what you urge in regard
to my neglect of you, I take leave to enter my protect in
the strongest terms against the general charge made in your
letter that I have neglected several others in the same way.
I have had no correspondent in America (I have excepted
you) who has not generally been in my debt. The truth is,
my friends have overlooked me in a strange way, and I have
been compelled to jog their memories more than perhaps I
ought to have done. As to Ninian, you know very well that
in writing to you I considered myself as writing to him ; for
I did not imagine it was desirable that I should make two
letters, which should be little more than duplicates, when
one would serve just as well. But since I have discovered
that Ninian wished me to write to him, I have taken plea-
sure in doing so ; and for some time past, I think he has no
cause to complain of me on this score.
" It is my earnest wish to return home without loss of
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 37
time, and to apply in earnest to my profession for the pur-
pose of securing, while my faculties are unimpaired, a com-
petence for my helpless family. For several months past I
have thought of desiring from my government to be recalled,
and if the prospect of our resuming our fimctions does not
greatly change for the better before next spring, I shall un-
doubtedly have recourse to this step. At present, it is not
practicable to form even a conjecture upon this subject.
We have been stopped by the difficulties that have occurred
under the 6th article of the treaty, and not by any thing
depending on ourselves, or connected with our own duties.
If we had not been thus arrested in our progress, we should
have finished ere now, or at farthest by Christmas, to the
satisfaction of all parties. The arrangement under the 6th
article will be accomplished, I am afraid, very slowly, if at
all; and even when that arrangement shall be made, the
execution of it will demand several years ; and we are not, it
seems, to outstrip the advances it shall make. Thus it is
probable that I shall grow old in this country, unless I re-
sign. In short, I see very httle room to doubt that I shall
be driven to this expedient. So much for the mismanage-
ment and folly of other people !
" The commission in America has been wretchedly bun-
gled. I am entirely convinced that with discretion and mod-
eration a better result might have been obtained ; be this
as it may, it is time for me to think seriously of revisiting
my country, and of employing myself in a profitable pursuit.
I shall soon begin to require ease and retirement ; my con-
stitution is weak and my health precarious. A few years of
professional labor will bring me into the sear and yellow
leaf of life; and if I do not begin speedily, I shall begin too
late. To commence the world at foi-iy is indeed dreadfid ;
but I am used to adverse fortune, and know how to struggle
with it ; my consolations cannot easily desert me — the
consciousness of honorable views, and the cheering hope
38 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
that Providence will yet enable me to pass my age in
peace. It is not of small importance to me tliat I shall go
back to the bar cured of every propensity that could divert
me from business — stronger than when I left it — and, I trust,
somewhat wiser. In regard to legal knowledge, I shall not
be worse than if I had continued ; I have been a regular and
industrious student for the last two years, and I believe my-
self to be a much better lawyer than when I arrived in Eng-
land. There are other respects, too, in which I hope I have
gained something — how much, my friends must judge. But
I am wearying you with prattle about myself, for which I
ask you to excuse me,
" I received Ninian's letter by Mr. Gore, but have not
now time to answer it. I wrote him very lately. Eequest
him to get from Mr. Vanhorne the note-book, or note-books
I lent him, and to take care of them for me. In one of my
note-books I made some few reports of General Court and
Chancery decisions. Let it be taken care of When I write
again, I hope to be able to state when it is probable I shall
have a chance of seeing you. When I do return, it is my
present intention to settle at Annapolis, unless I go to the
federal city. No certainty yet of peace — but I continue to
prophesy (notwithstanding the Emperor of Russia's troops)
that a continental peace will soon take place. The affair be-
tween this country and Denmark will probable be settled by
Denmark's yielding the point. I have no opinion of the
armed neutrality so much talked of It could do nothing
noiu^ if it were formed — but I doubt the fact of its forma-
tion."
MR. PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHEE NINIAN.
"London, July ^\sf, 1801.
" Dear N. : — Report has certainly taken great liberties
with my letter to Mr. Thompson. Undoubtedly I have
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 39
never wntten to any person sentiments that go the length
yon state. When the contest for President was reduced to
Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr, my judgment was fixed that
the former ought to he preferred — and I went so far as to
think that his superiority in every particular that gives a
title to respect and confidence, was so plain and decided as
to leave no room for an impartial and unprejudiced man to
hesitate in giving him his voice. Of course, it is probable
that in reference to the result of this competition, when it was
known, I have expressed myself in some of my letters to my
friends as higlily pleased, and that before it was known, I ex-
pressed my wishes that the event might be such as it has
been. It is Mghly probable too that, even before the con-
test was brought to this alternative, I have said that, what-
ever may have been my wishes, I felt no alarms at the idea
of Mr. Jefferson's success. I do not remember that I have
said thus much, but I believe it to be likely, because it would
have been true.
" I have at all times thought highly of Mr. Jefferson, and
have never been backward to say so. I have never seen, or
fancied I saw, in the perspective of his administration the
calamities and disasters, the anticipation of which has filled
so many with terror and dismay.
" I thought it certain that a change of me% would follow
his elevation to power — ^but I did not forbode from it any
such change of measures as would put in hazard the public
happiness. I believed, and do still believe him to he too
wise not to comprehend, and too honest not to pursue, the
substantial interests of the United States, which it is in fact
almost impossible to mistake, and which he has every possible
motive to secure and promote. I did not credit the sugges-
tions that unworthy prejudices against one nation, or childish
predilection for another, would cause him to commit the
growing prosperity of his country to the chances of a war,
by which much might be lost, but nothing could he gained,
40 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
except the fruits of petty hostility and base pillage on the
ocean. I did not credit, and often did not understand, the
vague assertions that he was a disorganizer — an enemy to all
efficient government — a democrat — an infidel, &c. &c.
" In the past conduct of Mr. Jefferson, so far as it had
come to my knowledge, I discovered no just foundation for
these assertions — and I am not to he influenced by mere
clamor, from whatsoever quarter it may come. In short, I
never could persuade myself to tremble lest the United
States should find in the presidency of Mr. Jefferson the
evils which might be expected to flow from a weak or a wicked
government. I am, on tlie contrary, satisfied that he has
talents, knowledge, integrity, and stake in the country suffi-
cient to give us well-founded confidence, that our affliirs will
be well administered so far as shall depend on him ; although
he may not always perhaps make use of exactly the same
means and agents that our partialities or pecidiar opinions
might induce us to wish.
" I hope you are deceived as to the possible consequences
of tlie ensuing State elections. What has Mr. Jeiferson's
being President of the United States to do with your Gen-
eral Court, Chancery, &c.? Without tracing the peril in
which these establishments manifestly are, to the ascendency
of this or that political party in the nation at large, it may
be found in the local interests of the different counties at any
distance from the seat of justice — in the interests of the
attorneys who swarm in every part of the State, and in the
House of Delegates — in the plausible and popular nature of
the theory that justice should be brought home to men's
doors, and that it should be cheap, easy, and expeditious — in
the love of change which half the w^orld believe to be synon-
ymous with improvement — in the disgust of parties who have
lost their cause and their money at Annapolis or Easton, and
who imagine they would have done better in the county
court — and in a thousand other causes that a long speech
LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 41
only could enumerate. Five years ago your House of Dele-
gates voted the abolition of the General Court, and yet
Maryland was at that time in high reputation as a federal
State. The Senate, it is true, rejected the bill ; not, howev-
er, because they were more federal than the House of Dele-
gates, but simply because they had good sense enough to
perceive that the bill was a very foohsh affair ; and I have
confidence that your next Senate, whether Mr. Jefferson's
partisans or opposers, will manifest the same soundness of
mind and firmness of conduct. I profess I am a good deal
surprised that you at Annapolis, who are interested locally,
as well as generally, in preserving the General Court, &c.,
should be so imprudent as to cause it to be understood that
you consider the whole of a great and triumphant party in
the State as hostile upon principle to these establishments.
For my part I would hold the opposite language, and w^ould
industriously circulate my unalterable conviction that this
was no party question, but such a one as every honest man,
a friend to the prosperity of Maryland, and to the purity of
justice, cannot fail to oppose. By making a party question
of it, you are in greater danger of a defeat than you other-
wise would be, because you may give party men inducements
to vote for it who in a different and more correct view of the
subject might vote the other way. You are on the spot,
however, and must have better means of judging on this
head than I have. No man would lament more sincerely
than I should do, the destruction of what I consider the fair-
est ornaments of our judicial system. If I was among you,
I would spare no honest effort to stem the torrent of innova-
tion, which has long been threatening the superior courts,
and will finally overthrow them. But I should not believe
that I was promoting my object by putting in array against
me, and insisting on considering and treating as adversaries,
a numerous and zealous body of men with whom I hajjpened
42 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNET.
to differ on some other topic, and who perh'aps, if I would al-
low them to take their own stations, would be found on my
side."
MR. PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, July 21s/, 1803.
"Dear N. : — I received your kind letter of the 31st of
May on yesterday. You had omitted to write to me for so
great a length of time, that I had despaired of again hearing
from you during my stay in England. Your letter has, of
course, given me more than usual pleasure.
" I offer you my congratulations on your marriage, which
you have now for the first time announced to me, Mrs. P.
desires me also to offer you hers. We both wish you all the
hapj)iness you can yourself desire.
" It is now certain that I am not to see you this year.
Our commission will, however, close next winter, and in April
or May, if I live and do well, I shall undoubtedly be with
you. In the mean time, such insinuations as you mention,
let them come from what quarter they wiU (and I can form
no conjecture whence they come), can give me no uneasiness.
I am not so inordinately fond of praise as to be disapjiointed
or provoked, when I am told that there are some who either
do or affect to think less of my capacity than I would have
them. What station you aUude to I am wholly unable to
judge, but I know that I have never solicited any. I am no
office-hunter. Without professing to shun pubHc emjjloy-
ment when it seeks me, I can truly say that I disdain to
seek it. My rehance, both for character and fortune, is, un-
der Providence, on my profession, to which I shall imme-
diately returu, and in the practice of which I do not fear to
silence those insinuators. What I am must soon be seen
and known. The bar is not a place to acquire or preserve a
false or fraudulent reputation for talents ; and I feel what is
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 43
I hope, no more than a just and honorable confidence, in
which I may indulge without vanity, that on that theatre I
shall be able to make my depredators acknowledge that they
have unden^alued me.
" I shall mingle too in the politics of my country on my
return (I mean as a private citizen only) ; and then I shall
not fail to give the world an opportunity of judging both of
my head and my heart. Enough of this.
" I have constantly beUeved that America has nothing to
fear from the men now at the head of our affairs — and in
this I think you wiU soon agTee with me, notwithstanding
the interested clamor of their adversaries. Time wiU show
in what hands the public power in America can be most
safety deposited. To that test you will do well to refer
yourself. In the mean time it appears to be a rational con-
fidence that no party can long abuse that power with impu-
nity."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. COOKE.
" LojiDOX, August Sth, 1 803.
" My Dear Sir : — The kindness of your last letter, which
I received about a week ago, and which I shall long bear in
mind, will not allow me to forego the pleasure of writing you
once more (though but a few lines) during my stay in Eng-
land. I say 07ice more, because I trust that early in the spring
I shaU commence my voyage for America, and of course
shall have no inducement to write again. I was entirely
convinced before the receipt of your last, that your letter
of December, on the subject of the Maryland business, was
dictated, as you say, by friendship ; and I not only felt all
the value of the motive, but thanked you sincerely for the
communication itself.
" I had not heard of your rejection of the appointment to
44 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
the Court of Appeals, and I am truly sorry that you have
rejected it. Of the cn-cumstances attending the offer, or the
views by which it was either influenced or resisted, I know
nothing ; but I know that the appointment would have been
the best that could have been made ; and I believe that the
public have a right to your services, now that it is no longer
necessary that you should labor for yourself I have, however,
so much reHance ou the correctness of your judgment, that
I must presume you have done right, and that I see only
half the subject.
" I am prepared on my return to find the spirit of party
as high and frenzied as the most turbulent would have it.
I am even prepared to find a brutality in that spirit which
in this country either does not exist, or is kej)t down by the
predominance of a better feeling, I lament with you that
this is so ; and I loonder that it is so — ^for the American people
are generous, and liberal, and enlightened. We are not, I
hope, to have this inordinate zeal, this extravagant fanaticism,
entailed upon us — although really one might almost suppose
it to be a part of our political creed that internal tranquillity,
or rather the absence of domestic discord, and a rancorous
contention for power, was incompatible with the health of
the state, and the hberty of the citizen. I profess to be
temperate in my opinions, and shall put in my claim to
freedom of conscience ; but when both sides are intolerant,
what hope can I have that this claim will be respected ? At
the bar I must contrive as well as I can, for I must return
to it. I have no alternative ; and if I had, choice would
carry me back to the profession. I do not desire office, al-
though I have no such objections to the present adminis-
tration, as, on what are called party principles, would induce
me to decline public employment. It is my wish to be a mere
professional laborer — to cultivate my friends and my family,
and to secure an honorable independence before I am over-
taken by age and infirmity. My present intention is to fix
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 45
in Baltimore, where I will flatter myself I shall find some
who will not regret my choice of residence. I had under-
stood with unfeigned concern the severe loss you alude to,
and knew the pain it would occasion. You have, however,
the best of consolations in those whom she has left behind ;
and it is my earnest wish that they may he long spared to
you, and you to them. In a family like yours every loss
must be deeply felt ; for none can be taken away without
diminishing the stock of worth and happiness to which each
is so well calculated to contribute. But you have stiU about
you enough to jDreserve to Ufe all that belongs to it of inter-
est and value, to which, my dear sir, you can add that which
many cannot, the perfect consciousness of having deserved it.
I beg you to remember me in the most friendly terms to
your sons, and to present our affectionate compliments to
Mrs. Cooke."
MK. PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, February 15th, 1804.
" My Dear Sir : — Your letter of the 2d of December,
which I received on the 23d of last month, is among the
most pleasing of the many proofs wliich my long absence
from America has procured me of your valuable friendship.
It is not in my power to manifest by words the sensibility
which such kindness excites in my heart. I must leave it
to time therefore to offer me other means.
" The application to the government of the United
States, for an outfit, was the joint application of Mr. Gore
and myself; and as it was addressed wholly to the Justice of
the government, and asked no favor, I did not suppose that
it would be proper' to endeavor to interest my friends gener-
ally in its success. It seemed to me that this would have
argued a distrust either of the claim itself, or of those to
46 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
whom it was preferred ; and as I really had the most perfect
confidence in both, I was not disposed to act as if I had none.
Accordingly, I mentioned the subject only to General Smith,
as a Senator of the United States, requesting of him, in case
the President should lay it before Congress, such explanations
and support as it might seem to him to require, and his view
of it {as a demand of right) would justify. More than this,
I could not prevail upon myself to do, although I began
several letters to diff erent persons whose good offices I thought
I might venture to ask. General Smith has answered my
letter, and otherwise acted on this occasion in a way to de-
serve my particular thanks. I have no doubt, however, that
the claim has been rejected ; and I understand that I am
not likely to derive much consolation for this rejection, from
the manner in which our application has been received and
treated. It would not be proper to say more upon a trans-
action of which I have at present such scanty knowledge,
and the result of which may not be such as I conjecture it
to be.
" General Smith mentions another matter, of which you
also take notice — I mean the desire expressed by some gen-
tlemen of Baltimore, who have been benefited by my services
in England, to make me 45ome pecuniary acknowledgment.
My answer, written in a hurry, and therefore, perhaps, not
exactly what it ought to be, declines this proposal, for which,
however, I cannot but be sincerely thankful to those from
whom it proceeds. General Smith will probably show you
my letter, and I should be glad that you would even ask him
to do so.
"As to the arrangement of a loan, it is liable, in sub-
stance, to all the objections applicable to the other, and
consequently inadmissible, I must, therefore, do as well as
I can with my own resources — and I have the satisfaction to
know that I shall leave England with my credit untouched,
and in no tradesman's debt. If it will distress me to return
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 47
to Maryland, with my large family (as I am not ashamed to con-
fess it will), I shall at least have to sustain me under it, the
consciousness that no vice has contributed to produce it —
that my honor has no stain upon it — and that although it
may be a misfortune to become poor in the public service, it
is no crime. For the rest, I rely upon Providence and my
own eiFoi-ts in my profession,
" I am not ashamed, my dear sir, that almost every
word of this letter has myself for its subject ; and I should
be yet more so, if I did not recollect that it is to you, who
have encouraged me thus to play the egotist. I am not
likely, however, to sin in this respect, at least for some time,
as I hope to leave this country in March, for the United
States, and shall of course be under no temptation , to write
again, even to you.
" The affair of the Maryland stock is in train, and I have
now a fair prospect of settKng it (as I hope satisfactorily)
after much anxiety, vexation and difficulty. A week or
two more will, I trust, conclude it. I shall not make any
communication on this subject to the government of the
United States, or of Maryland, until I am enabled to say
that the stock has been transferred. Some sacrifice on our
part has been found indispensable — but if with that sacrifice
the residue can be immediately secured, we ought, in my
opinion, to rejoice. That business closed, I shall only wait
for a vessel sufficient to accommodate my family, bound to
Baltimore. None has yet offered — and I begin to have some
fears on that score. I must have patience."
Mr. Pinkney was absent from the United States until
August, 1804, when he returned once more to the spot he
most loved on earth, to begin again at the age of forty the
struggles of the forum. He returned however with a mind
enriched with foreign travel, panting to gain fresh laurels,
and stimulated by the master minds of the Law, in the mo-
48 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ther country, in contact with wliom lie had been brought by
the business of his mission. He led a very active life
while abroad. He observed every thing worthy of note, and
studied every thing he saw. His society was much sought
by distinguished noblemen and commoners, and it was his
happiness to form some warm friendships, which reheved the
period of his temporary exile. He continued to pursue with
unabated ardor and energy his professional studies, and kept
up his habit of extempore SjDeakiug in private. Nothing
was permitted to entice liim from this severe mental disci-
pline and labor. With the eje of an intelligent and discrim-
inating critic he instituted a comparison between the bar of
England and that of the United States ; — and the compari-
son was far from being prejudicial to the rising character of
his countrymen. Privileged to sit within the bar of the
English parliament, he was a constant frequenter of the de-
bates of that body; and was therefore qualified to form and
express his opinion. He made the most of his circumstan-
ces, and appro j)riated with consummate skill all the benefits of
this close and critical analysis of the legal and parliamentary
mind of England.
By this course of patient application, and constant prac-
tice in private of the habit of speaking (kept up and per-
severed in, amid the biilUant displays of a Parliament pre-
eminently distinguished for oratorical ability), he retained
all liis freshness as an advocate, and entered on the re-
newal of professional conflict, as though he had not aban-
doned for a moment the courts of justice. Baltimore was
the field selected for the re-commencement of his labors. He
no sooner entered upon it than business flowed in, and ho
found himself occupied ■with a practice extremely lucrative.
He took his stand at the head of the Maryland Bar, and
won honors in every contest. His arguments enlightened
the tribunals he addressed, and the courts acknowledged his
supremacy.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 49
In 1805 he was appointed Attorney-General of the State.
This office he consented to hold for the benefit of one of his
early and most revered fiiends, between whom and himself
there existed a warm* personal attachment. I allude to Mr.
Johnson, who was afterwards the Chancellor of Maryland, a
gentleman of uncommon force of intellect and purity of
character — the father of the Hon. Reverdy Johnson and
John Johnson, the former one of the very fii'st lawyers of
the Union, who as Senator and Attorney-Greneral of the
United States displayed a statesmanHke abihty and profound
legal learning which have won for him a most enviable dis-
tinction ; and the latter, the present accomphshed and able
Chancellor of the State.
In 1806 he was again sent to England to assist Mr. Mon-
roe in the adjustment of our difficult and delicate negotia-
tions with that august and mighty nation. This appoint-
ment he received from President Jefferson. The mode in
which it was conferred was alike honorable to each. He was
chosen for his peculiar fitness for the work, and solicited to
accept the trust for the good of the country. In a letter
from Mr. Jeflerson (now given to the public for the first
time), in his own beautiful autograjih, from which I copy,
dated August 5th, 1809, I find the following expKcit lan-
guage :
" I am happy in an occasion of expressing to you my
great esteem for you personally, and the satisfaction with
which I noted the correctness, both as to matter and manner,
with which you discharged the public duties you loere so kind
as to undeHake at my request.
" I witnessed too, with pleasure, the esteem with which
you inspired my successor, then more immediately engaged
In correspondence with you. Accept the just tribute of
mine also, and of my great respect and consideration."
It is refreshing at this day to look back to the time
when a pubhc trust so delicate and important was assumed,
4
50 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
as a kind compliance with the earnest request of the Presi-
dent, with whom was lodged the appointing power. Mr.
Pinkney had been abroad. He was at this time in the full
flush of professional success, amassing a fortune for his large
and helpless family, with nothing to desire but health and
strength to reap the field that was literally groaning beneath
the burden of the harvest. He was exactly in the sphere he
most coveted to fill, when the eye of the President was
turned towards him — a President, too, whom he could be
scarcely said to know except by name and a large reputation.
He was called to turn aside once more from the forum, and
the scenes he most loved to contemj)late, and the circle of
friends in which he most delighted ; and embark on a mis-
sion that j)romised nothing but toil and self-sacrifice. It was
the call of the country, however, and his patriot heart beat
responsive to it. A kind compliance with the President's
request was the thing asked of him, and the boon was no
sooner asked than granted.
The manner in which he executed this trust, or after-
wards filled the sole responsibilities of Minister Plenipoten-
tiary to the court of St, James, will be discussed in another
portion of this memoir.
It may be refreshing to i3ause a moment in our narrative,
and turn to the correspondence of Mr. Pinkney, and see
what was the state of his mind, his views and feehngs, dur-
ing this his second embassage to England,
MR, PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER NINIAN.
"London, April 28th, 1808,
" Dear N, : — I received a few days ago yoiu: very short
letter on a very large sheet of paper. I expected a volume,
and was obliged to put up with half a dozen lines. This
is not weU. After all, it is so much clear gain to hear from
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 51
you ; and, giving you credit for good intentions and a good
stock of affection, I thank you for your letter, which furnish-
es much evidence of both. 1 should have been gratified
undoubtedly by a little intelligence about AnnapoHs, the
health of friends, and so forth ; but you will give me all
these in your next letter ; and so we will settle the account.
"I congratulate you on the growth of your daughter.
She is, I doubt not, worthy of all your care, and will, I sin-
cerely hope and trust, give you many a delightful hour, em-
ployed in watching her improvement, and cultivating and
forming her mind and manners : the purest, the most com-
pletely unmixed of all our enjoyments ; for even its anxieties
are happiness !
" How does it happen that Jonathan has not written to
me ? It is odd enough that I, who seem to have a host of
friends, as kind as heart could wish, when I am in Maryland,
appear to have none the moment I leave it. This is poor
encouragement to travel, I think, if ever I. live to get back
to the fontes et Jlumina natce, this consideration will induce
me to make a vow to quit them no more on any errand
whatever. Even you recollect me only when some striking
event forces me, as it were, upon you ; and Jonathan of
course forgets me, because I keep no cash at the Farmers'
Bank. Notwithstanding all this, remember me to him in
the most affectionate manner. Tell him I think of him of-
ten. How I think of him he need not be told.
" I have been more frequently indisposed within the last
six months, than has been usual with me. I am, indeed,
just recovered from an attack. Too much employment and
some inquietude may have laid me open to these indisposi-
tions. The cHmate does not suit me as well as it did. I
hope to do better in future ; but these warnings are not to
be shghted.
" You have not mentioned the Governor in any of your
letters. You must Hke him, I am sure ; for he is of a lib-
52 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
eral, generous temper. I do not meet with your newspapers
as often as I could wish ; but, from those I have seen, the
Governor's conduct appears to have been active, spirited, and
judicious on every occasion that has occurred since his first
appointment. It was to have been confidently expected
that it should be so. His principles have always been those
of ardent patriotism ; and his mind, naturally strong and
vigorous, has been enUghtened by great experience. In my
letter to him by Mr. Kose (which, as Mr. Kose did not go
to Annapolis as he expected, was not perhaps delivered), I
asked to have the pleasure of hearing from him when he
should have a leisure hour which he could not otherwise em-
ploy. Will you take an opportunity of intimating this to
him.? Eemind Mr. H. and Mr. D. of me. Tell them
tliat they neglect me ; but that I remember them with as
much cordial esteem as ever. Where is my friend, Mr. E. ?
If you should see him, say to him for me a thousand kind
tilings. Inform Mr. M. that I wrote to him last autumn ;
but fear my letter miscarried. As to Mr. C, he has given
me up entirely. There are many other friends of whom I
could speak ; but I have not time. There is one, however,
of whom I will find time to speak ; and to her I beg you to
say that she sliares in aU the regard I feel for you."
MR. PINKNEY TO THE SAME.
"London, August 29th, 1808.
" Dear N. : — I have had the pleasure to receive your
letter of the 16th of July, and am happy to see that you do
not forget me.
" I should reluctantly quarrel with your domestic felicity ;
but I might perhaps be in danger of doing so, if it appeared
to engross you so entii-ely as to leave no leisure for a recollec-
tion now and then of us who are absent.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 53
"The letter of which you speak (inclosing one from
Mrs, P.) came safe to hand ; and if it had not, I should
have invented half a dozen apologies for you. I know you
so well, that, when you appear to neglect me, I am ready to
throw the blame upon fortune, upon accident (who are, I
suspect, the same personages), upon every thing, and every
body, rather than upon you.
" My health lias been rather worse than I wished it ; but
I am now convalescent. A short absence from town (my
family are still out of town), sea-air and sea-bathing, have
put me up again.
" Such a result of my labors for the public as you would
flatter me with, would make me, I doubt not, the healthiest
man in England. There is a sort of moral health, however,
which crosses, and difficulties, and disappointments, tend
very much to promote. I must endeavor to console myself
with the opinion that I have laid in a good stock of that
while I was losing some of the other.
" After all this philosophizing, I am half inclined to envy
you the smooth, even tenor of your life. You are every
way happy — at home — abroad. Nothing disturbs your tran-
quillity farther than to show you the value of it.
" Beloved by your family — ^respected and esteemed every
where — your official capacity acknowledged — your official
exertions successful — what have you to desire ? But I have
been so tossed about in the world, that, although I am as
happy at home as my neighbors, I can hardly be said to have
had a fair and decent share of real quiet. The time may
come, however, when I too shall be tranquil, and when, freed
from a host of importunate cares, that now keep me com-
pany whether I will or not, I may look back upon the way
I have travelled with a heart at ease, and forward with a
Christian's hope. I suspect I am growing serious when I
meant to be directly the reverse. Thus, indeed, it is with
the great mass of our purposes.
54 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
" I am rejoiced that Annapolis holds up its head. In
itself the most beautiful, to me the most interesting spot
on earth, I would fain believe that it is doomed to enjoy the
honors of old age without its decrepitude. There is not a
foot of ground in its neighborhood which my memory has
not consecrated, and which does not produce, as fancy traces
it, a thousand retrospections that go directly to the heart.
It was the scene of our youthful days. What more can be
said ? I would have it to be also the scene of my dechning
years.
" Tell Jonathan that I would write to him if I could —
but that I have scarcely leisure for this scrawl. He knows
my affections, and will take the 'will for the deed.' I offer
him, through you, my felicitations upon the stabiHty and
wholesome effects of the Farmers' Bank. Ask him why it
is that I do not hear from him ? All days are not discount
days, and a man may be cashier of the Bank of England,
and yet have a moment to spare to those who love him. I
beg you to remember me to the Governor, and to Dr. J., and
to other friends."
MR. PINKNEY TO MRS. NINIAN PINKNEY.
"London, Jime24:th, 1809.
" My Dear Madam : — If I had not found it impossible
to answer your letter by the return of the Pacific, it would
have been answered. Business occupied my time, and
anxiety my heart, to the last moment. I would have
cheated the last of these tyrants of an hour or two by con-
versing with you ; but the first forbade it, and I had no
choice but to submit. From this double despotism I am
now comparatively free, and the use which I make of my
liberty is to trespass on you with a few hnes.
I shall not condole with you on your loss, though I am
able to conjecture how keenly it has been felt ; you have
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 55
yourself suggested one of the consolations which best support
the good under the heaviest of all human calamities : We
shall meet again in purity and Joy the friends who are every
day falling around us. There is nothing which more effec-
tually cheers the soul in its dark mortal pilgrimage than
this noble confidence ; life would, indeed, be a sad journey
without it ; the power of death is, in tliis view, nothing ; it
separates us for a season merely to fit us for a more exalted
and holy communion. I have clung to this thought ever
since I was capable of thinking, and I would not part with
it for worlds ; it has assisted me in many a trial to bear up
against the evil of the hour, and to shake off in some degree
(for who can boast of having enth'ely escaped from) the in-
fluence of those passions that betray and degrade us. If
I may dare to say so, it gives a new value to immortality,
while it furnishes powerful incentives to virtue. You can-
not, I think, have yet met with " Morehead's Discourses."
One of his sermons turns upon the loss of children ; and he
sets forth, with that eloquence which comes warm from the
heart, the softenings which this bitter afiliction derives from
rehgion. When you can get the sermon, read it ; in the
mean time, the following short extract will please you. It is
exquisitely beautiful ; and the best of our modern Reviews
has quoted it as a soothing and original suggestion :
" ' We are all well aware of the influence of the world. We
know how strongly it engages our thoughts, and debases the
springs of our actions : we all know how important it is to
have the springs of our minds renewed, and the rust which
gathers over them cleared away. One of the principal ad-
vantages, perhaps, which arises from the possession of
children, is, that in their society the simplicity of our nature
is constantly recalled to our view ; and that, when we return
from the cares and thoughts of the world into our domestic
circle, we behold beings whose happiness springs from no
false estimates of worldly good, but from the benevolent
56 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
instincts of nature. The same moral advantage is often
dei^ived in a greater degree from the memory of those children
who have left us. Their simple characters dwell upon our
minds with a deeper impression ; their least actions return
to our thoughts with more force than if we had it still in
our power to witness them ; and they return to us clothed
in that saintly garb which belongs to the possessors of a
higher existence. We feel that there is now a link connect-
ing us with a purer and a better scene of beings ; that a
part of ourselves has gone before us in the bosom of God ;
and that the same happy creatures which here on earth
showed us the simple som-ces from which happiness springs,
now hover over us, and scatter from their wings the graces
and beatitudes of eternity.'
" Who can read this passage without feeling his heart in
unison with it? It cannot be read without inspiring a
pleasing melancholy, and lifting the mind beyond the low
contamination of this probationary state, ' to scenes where
love and bliss immortal reign.' "
ME. PINKNEY TO HIS BROTHER NINIAN.
"LoiiTMii, September 2Sd, 1809.
" Dear N. : — I received, a few days ago, your letter of
the 26th of June. I am obUged to you for the intelligence
given in a part of it, and still more for the kindness and
aftection which pervade the whole. A better choice of
Governor could not, I should think, have been made. It
must have been very agreeable to you, and I congratulate
you upon it accordingly. I have not yet received the letter
which you tell me I am to expect from the Governor and
Council. I shaU be happy to do all in my power to fulfil
their wishes, whatever they may be. William is most for-
tunately fixed, and I have the utmost confidence that he wiU
do well. If he does otherwise his condemnation wiU be great
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 57
indeed. The children who are with me have shot up at a
prodigious rate, and require much care and expense. Charles,
who is a remarkably promising boy, has finished his prepar-
atory course, and is now at Eton. Edward will be placed,
after Clu-istmas, at the school which Charles has left. The
rest will continue to have masters at home.
" My anxiety to return does not diminish. On the con-
trary, it grows upon me, and I find it necessary to wrestle
with it. You know that I have as many and as strong in-
ducements to be contented here as any American could
have ; but England is not Maryland ; and foreign friends^
however great, or numerous, or kind, cannot interest us like
those of our native land, — the companions of our early days,
the witnesses and competitors of our first struggles in life,
and the indulgent partakers of our sorrows and our joys ! I
trust that I have as Httle disposition as any man to repine
at my lot, and I know that I endeavored to form my mind
to a devout and reverential submission to the will of God.
Yet I cannot conceal from myself that every day adds some-
thing to my cares and nothing to my ha^^piness ; that I am
growing old among strangers ; and that my heart, naturally
warm and open, becomes cold by discipline, contracted by
duty, and sluggish from want of exercise. These may be
called imaginary ills ; but there is another, which all the
world will admit to be substantial — I speak to you in confi-
dence— my salary is found by experience to be far short of
the actual necessities of my situation. It was fixed at its
present rate many years ago, when the style of living and
the prices of articles would not bear a comparison with those
of the present time. I have no right to complain, however ;
and, therefore, I write this for your own perusal merely."
58 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
THOMAS JEFFERSON TO WILLIAM PINKNEY.
"MoNTicELLO, August 5th, 1809.
" Dear Sir. — The bearer hereof, Mr. Alexander McEae,
and Major John Clarke, proposing to go to Great Britain on
their private concerns, I take the liberty of presenting them
to your notice and patronage. Mr. McKae, a lawyer of dis-
tinction, has been a member of the council of state of Vir-
ginia and Lieutenant-Governor, highly esteemed for his
talents and correctness of principle, moral and political.
Major Clarke was long also in public employ as director of
the armory of this State, recommended as such by his great
mechanical ingenuity and personal worth. Any good offices
you may be so kind as to render them will be deservedly
bestowed ; and their knowledge of the present state of our
afifairs may enable them to add acceptably to your informa-
tion.
" I am happy in an occasion of expressing to you my
great esteem for you personally, and the satisfaction with
which I noted the correctness, both as to matter and man-
ner, with which you discharged the pubUc duties you were
so kind as to undertake at my request.
" I Avitnessed too with pleasure the esteem with which
you inspired my successor, then more immediately engaged
in correspondence with you. Accept the just tribute of
mine also, and of my great respect and consideration."
MR. PINKNEY TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.
"London, April BOt/i, 1810.
" Dear Sir : — It was only a few days ago that I had the
honor to receive your letter of the 5th of August last, by
Mr. McRae. I need not say that I shall be happy to show
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 59
that gentleman every attention, and to do him every service
in my power.
" I cannot express to you how sensibly I feel the kind-
ness of the last paragraph of your letter. If any thing could
give new strength to the affectionate sentiments which bkid
me to you, it would be the assurance it contains, that in
your retirement you look back with approbation on my
humble endeavors to be useful to om- country, and that you
honor me with your esteem. I lay claim to no other merit
than that of disinterested zeal in seconding your views for
the pubUc honor and prosperity ; views which I heartily
approved, and which every day demonstrates the wisdom.
" I sincerely hope that my conduct during the remainder
of my mission (which, without utter ruin to my private
affairs, can scarcely be very long) will not deprive me of
your good opinion. I am quite sure that it will not shake
yom' confidence in the rectitude of my intentions.
" When I return to the private situation in which you
were so good as to distinguish me, it will be in my power to
show as I wish the veneration in which I hold your character,
and the impression which your friendly conduct towards me
has made upon my heart."
Amid the exciting and agitating discussions that were
going on in England, and the often clouded sky of our polit-
ical horizon, it is dehghtful to trace the workings of private
friendship, and recall the sentiments of respect with which
our Minister inspired those with whom he was brought in
contact. The ahenation of countries, so closely allied to
each other in all that can cement and bind them together,
is exceedingly painful. The aggravating perseverance in an
odious and oppressive policy (sanctioned by no principle of
the great international law, on the part of successive admin-
istrations of public affairs in England), which ultimately
terminated lq a disastrous war, is a subject of reflection not
60 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
less painful in the retrospect. But there are evidences of a
kindliness of feeling, a generosity and magnanimity, which
set forth the personal character of those most intimately
connected with such grave discussions in beautiful and
striking contrast, and prove that while each was true to
their national claims, they knew how to admire and appre-
ciate what was personally winning and attractive in the
other. The following letters from Wilberforce, the pure-
hearted and eloquent champion of humanity, and Lord Hol-
land, the consummate statesman and refined gentleman,
though in themselves hut mere expressions of personal re-
gard, will he read with interest.
FEOM LORD HOLLAND TO MR. PINKNEY.
London, June \sl, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — From fear that you might have thought
what I said to you about your boy a mere matter of form, I
write again to you after I have talked it over with Lady
Holland, to say that if we are to encounter the misfortune of
a war with America, and upon leaving this country you
should wish your son to pursue his education here, Lady
Holland and myself beg to assure you, that without the least
inconvenience to us, we can take care of him dm'ing the holi-
days ; and between them ascertain, that he is going on pro-
perly, and give you all the information you would require
upon the progress of his studies, state of his health, &c. I
only entreat you to adopt this plan, if otherwise agreeable
and convenient, without scruple, as I assure you we should
not ofier it if we did not feel pleasure in the prospect of its
being accepted.
" I see in the Morning Chronicle of yesterday the state-
ment you gave me in a letter signed Veritas. Where it comes
from I know not. I was preparing to send the statement to
the papers, and it has saved me the trouble."
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 61
FKOM WILBEREOKCE TO MR. PINKNEY.
"March Uth, 181L
" My Dear Sir : — It has been, for above a week past,
my intention to do myself the honor of calling on you, to
take my chance of obtaining a conference with you ; but
having always been, and still being prevented, may I take the
liberty of begging the favor of you to appoint a day, when
between 11 and 1 (if you can spare me a few moments be-
tween those hours), I may have the honor of a httle conver-
sation with you. Indeed, if you should stay in England
longer than I fear you design, I would hope that you might
indulge me with your company at dinner ; but I am anxious
to secm^e a little intercourse with you. I cannot lay down
my pen without expressing (and with no unmeaning words)
my deep concern on the event of your quitting this country;
fearing that it has at least a face of declining friendship be-
tween our two countries, which it is one of the fondest desires
of my heart, as it is recommended by the clearest judgment
of my understanding, that they should be united in the bonds
of close and indissoluble attachment."
Mr. Pinkney retm-ned to the United States in the month
of June, 1811. He was not suffered to continue long in re-
tirement ; for in the September following he was elected a
member of the Senate of Maryland. This position he oc-
cupied but a few months, for in December he was ajDpointed,
by President Madison, Attorney-General of the United
States. This was an office eminently congenial to his tastes
and feehngs. It gave a sj)lendid scope to the pecuHar powers
of his mind, and opened up a field of usefulness and of fame
most tempting to behold, and profitable to cultivate and till.
There was something too in the manner in which it was con-
ferred, that was exceedingly gratifying. He had just returned
from England. His whole pubHc career, while at the court
62 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of St. James, had j^assed under the immediate review of Mr.
Madison ; and it was a noble tribute to his worth, to be se-
lected almost immediately on his return to fill so important
and dignified a position, in a relationship so near to that
wise and great statesman. The manner in. which his new
duties were discharged is best illustrated by the might and
majesty of his arguments before the Supreme Court, and the
cogency and convincing power of his written legal opinions.
The passage of a law, which made it necessary for the Attor-
ney-General to reside at the seat of government, com-
pelled him to resign the post within the short period of two
years. His practice was too lucrative to admit of so great a
sacrifice, and Madison was left to mourn his loss to the public
councils of the nation. This necessity was just cause for re-
gret. Mr. Pinkney's great industry, methodical mode of
doing business, and high professional ambition, would have
been productive of most admirable results to the public ser-
vice ; wliile liis profound acquaintance with the constitution
and deep legal learning and skill in diplomacy, would have
made him an invaluable aid to the administration, and an
astute defender of the rights of the government.
During the war he was as ready to serve the country in
the field, as he had been to uphold her dignity and maintain
her honor in discussion with English diplomatists. He as-
sumed the command of a company, and in the disastrous en-
gagement at Bladensburg (where in the judgment of im-
partial history our arms will be found to have deserved a
better fate), he was severely wounded. The efiects of that
wound he carried with him to the grave.
He wielded his pen with signal success in the defence of
the war, and in a pamphlet over the signature of Publius,
addressed to the people of Maryland, he thus expressed him-
self.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 63
EXTRACTS FEOM A PAMPHLET WRITTEN BY MR. PINKNEY, UN-
DER THE SIGNATURE OF " PUBLIUS."
" But it is impossible that, in weighing the merits of a
candidate for a seat in the General Assembly, you should be
occupied by considerations which are merely local. You are
bound to give to your inquiries a wider range. You neither
can, nor ought, to shut your eyes to the urgent concerns of
the whole empire, embarked as it is in a conflict with the
determined foe of every nation upon earth sufficiently pros-
perous to be envied. Maryland is at all times an interesting
and conspicuous member of the Union ; but her relative po-
sition is infinitely more important now than in ordinary
seasons. The war is in her waters, and it is waged there
with a wantonness of brutality, which will not sufier the
energies of her gallant population to slumber, or the watch-
fulness of her appointed guardians to be intermitted. The
rights for which the nation is in arms are of high imj)ort to
her as a commercial section of the continent. They cannot
be surrendered or compromised without affecting every vein
and artery of her system ; and if the towering honor of uni-
versal America should be made to bow before the sword, or
should be betrayed by an inglorious peace, where will the
blow be felt with a sensibility more exquisite than here in
Maryland !
"It is perfectly true that our State government has not
the prerogative of peace and war ; but it is just as true, that
it can do much to invigorate or enfeeble the national arm for
attack or for defence ; that it may conspire with the legisla-
tures of other States to blast the best hopes of peace, by em-
barrassing or resisting the efforts by which alone a durable
peace can be achieved ; as it may forward pacific negotiation
by contributing to teach the enemy that we who, when our
64 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
means were small, and our numbers few, rose as one man,
and maintained ourselves victorious against the mere theories
of England, with all the terrors of EngHsh power before us,
are not noio prepared to crouch to less than the same power,
however insolently displayed, and to receive from it in per-
petuity an infamous yoke of pernicious principles, which had
already galled us until we could bear it no longer,
"That the war with England is irreproachably just, no
man can doubt who exercises his understanding upon the
cj[uestion. It is known to the whole world, that when it was
declared, the British Government had not retracted or quali-
fied any one of those maritime claims which threatened the
ruin of American commerce, and disparaged American sover-
eignty. Every constructive blockade, by which our ordinary
communication with European or other marts had been in-
tercepted, was either perversely maintained, or made to give
place only to a wider and more comprehensive impediment.
The right of impressment, in its most odious form, continued
to be vindicated in argument and enforced in practice. The
rule of the war of 1756, against which the voice of all Ame-
rica was lifted up in 1805, was stiU preserved, and had only
become inactive because the colonies of France and her allies
had fallen before the naval j)ower of England. The Orders
in Council of 1807 and 1809, which in their motive, principle,
and operation, were utterly incompatible with our existence
as a commercial people, which retaliated with tremendous
effect upon a friend the impotent irregularities of an enemy;
which established upon the seas a despotic dominion, by
which power and right were confounded, and a system of
monopoly and plunder raised, with a daring contempt of
decency, upon the wreck of neutral prosperity, and public
law ; which even attempted to exact a tribute, under the
name of an impost, from the merchants of this independent
land, for permission to become the slaves and instruments of
that abominable system ; had been adhered to (notwith-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 65
standing the acknowledged repeal of tue Berlin and Milan
decrees in regard to the United States) vdth an alarming ap-
pearance of a fixed and permanent attachment to those very
quahties which fitted th^m for the work of oppression, and
filled us '^'ith dismay. Satisfaction, and even explanation,
had been either steadily denied, or contemptuously evaded.
Our complaints had been reiterated till we ourselves blushed
to hear them, and till the insolence with which they were
received recalled us to some sense of dignity. History does
not furnish an example of such patience under such an ac-
cumulation of injuries and insults.
" The Orders in Council were indeed provisionally revok-
ed a few days after the declaration of war ; in such a man-
ner, however, as to assert their lawfulness, and to make
provision for their revival, whenever the British Grovemment
should think fit to say that they ought to be revived. The
distresses of the manufacturing and other classes of British
subjects had, at last, extorted from a bigoted and reluctant
cabinet what had been obstinately refused to the demands of
justice. But the lingering repeal, inadequate and ungracious
as it was, came too late. The RvMcon had been passed.
" ' Nothing is more to be esteemed than peace ' (I quote
the wisdom of Polybius), ' when it leaves us in possession of
our honor and rights ; but when it is joined with loss of free-
dom, or with infamy, nothing can be more detestable and
fatal.' I speak with just confidence, when I say, that no
federalist can be found who desires with more sincerity the
return of peace than the repubhcan government by which
the war was declared. But it desires such a peace as the
companion and instructor of Scipio has praised — a peace
consistent with our rights and honor, and not the deadly
tranquillity which may be purchased by disgrace, or taken in
barter for the dearest and most essential claims of our trade
and sovereignty. I appeal to you boldly : Are you prepared
to purchase a mere cessation of arms by unqualified submis-
5
66 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
sion to the pretensions of England ? Are you prepared to
sanction them by treaty and entail them upon your posteri-
ty, with the inglorious and timid hope of escaping the wrath
of those whom your fathers discoBifited and vanquished ?
Are you prepared, for the sake of a present profit, which the
circumstances of Europe must render paltry and precarious,
to cripple the strong wing of American commerce for years to
come, to take from our flag its national effect and character,
and to subject our vessels on the high seas, and the brave men
who na\agate them, to the municipal jurisdiction of Great
Britain ? I know very well that there are some amongst us (I
hope they are few) who are prepared for all this, and more ; who
pule over eveiy scratch occasioned by the war as if it were an
overwhelming calamity, and are only sorry that it is not
worse ; who would skulk out of a contest for the best interests
of their country to save a shilling or gain a cent ; who, having
inherited the wealth of their ancestors without their spirit,
would receive laws from London with as much facility as
woollens from Yorkshire, or hardware from Sheffield. But I
write to the great body of the people, who are sound and
virtuous, and worthy of the legacy which the heroes of the
Eevolution have bequeathed them. For tJiem, I undertake to
answer, that the only peace which they can be made to en-
dure, is that which may twine itself round the honor of the
people, and with its healthy and abundant foliage give shade
and shelter to the prosperity of the empire.
" I passed rapidly in a former number over the justifying
causes of the war. But you must permit me in this place,
and for a single instant, to recur to one of them, as introduc-
tory to a consideration which you will do well to lay to your
hearts when you are assembled at the polls. The founda-
tion upon which the claim of Great Britain reposes, to send
a pressgang on board of our shijis upon the ocean, as if
they were the docks or the alehouses of Liverpool, is simply
the right of the crown, as it is recognized by her laws, to the
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 67
services of every subject in time of war. The doctrine
amounts to this, that a man born within the British do-
minions is, in a qualified sense, the property of the govern-
ment, in virtue of an artificial and slavish notion of perpet-
ual allegiance ; that, though he may have been forced by
poverty or persecution to emigrate, and has become the cit-
izen or subject of another state, his allegiance cleaves to him
for life ; that no time, or distance, or sanctuary, or new
obligations can save him from its mysterious and inextinguish-
able power ; and that, of course, he may be seized wherever
and whenever he can be found.
" But the abominable doctrine is associated with another
which says, that although no state can be suffered to hold
British seamen in its service by naturalization or otherwise,
Great Britain may encourage the seamen of other states to
enter into her service, and may keep them there till she wants
them no longer ! And, that nothing may be wanting to the
coiisistency of the British doctrine on this head, it goes on to
maintain that if a foreign seaman should happen to marry
and settle (as it is j^hrased) in an English port, he may be
impressed as an English sailor, and may be retained as such
against his own remonstrance, seconded by that of his country.
" In the execution of the first of those rules, which the
associated rules so pointedly discountenance, our vessels were
stopped on their lawful voyages, and their mariners taken
away by violence upon the bare allegation, whether true or
false, that they were British subjects. Many of these per-
sons were native Americans, many of them were neutral
Europeans over whom Great Britain had no lawful control,
and many more were fairly entitled to be considered as Amer-
ican seamen, according to the law which Great Britain had
(as I have already stated) laid down and enforced against us
and the rest of the world. It was impossible that, with the
best disposition, such a rule should be made to act only csu
the professed objects of it. But it was often exercised with
68 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
wanton tyranny by proud and upstart surrogates in naval
uniform ; and the abuses grew to be enormous and intolera-
ble. The approach of a British cruiser, in the bosom of
peace, struck a terror in our seamen which it cannot now in-
spire, and almost every vessel returning from a foreign voy-
age, brought affliction to an American family, by reporting
the impressment of a husband, a brother, or a son. The
government of the United States, by whomsoever adminis-
tered, has invariably protested against this monstrous prac-
tice, as cruel to the gallant men whom it oppressed, as it
was injurious to the navigation, the commerce, and the sov-
ereignty of the Union. Under the administration of Wash-
ington, of Adams, of Jefferson, of Madison, it was reproba-
ted and resisted as a grievance which could not be borne ;
and Mr. King, who was instructed upon it, supposed at one
time that the British Government were ready to abandon it,
by a convention which he had arranged with Lord St. Vin-
cent, but which finally miscarried. You have witnessed the
generous anxiety of the late and present chief magistrates to
put an end to a usage so pestilent and debasing. You have
seen them propose to a succession of English ministers, as
inducements to its relinquishment, expedients and equiva-
lents of infinitely greater value to England than the usage,
whilst they were innocent in themselves and respectful to us.
You have seen these temperate overtures haughtily repelled,
until the other noxious pretensions of Great Britain, grown
in the interim to a gigantic size, ranged themselves by the
side of this, and left no alternative but war or infamy. We
are at war accordingly, and the single question is, whether
you will fly hke cowards from the sacred ground which the
government has been compelled to take, or whether you will
prove by your actions that you are descended from the loins
of men who reared the edifice of American liberty, in the
midst of such a storm as you have never felt.
" As the war was forced upon us by a long series of imex-
LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 69
mpled aggressions, it woiild be absolute madness to doubt
that peace will receive a cordial welcome, if she returns
without ignominy in her train, and with security in her hand.
The destinies of America are commercial, and her true policy
is peace ; but the substance of peace had, long before we
were roused to a tardy resistance, been denied to us by the
ministry of England ; and the shadow which had been left
to mock our hopes and to delude our imaginations, resembled
too much the frowning spectre of war to deceive any body.
Every sea had witnessed, and continued to witness, the sys-
tematic persecution of our trade and the unrelenting oppres-
sion of our people. The ocean had ceased to be the safe
highway of the neutral world ; and our citizens traversed it
with all the fears of a benighted traveller, who trembles
along a road beset with banditti, or infested by the beasts of
the forest. The government, thus urged and goaded, drew
the sword with a visible reluctance ; and, true to the pacific
policy which kept it so long in the scabbard, it will sheathe
it again when Great Britain shall consult her own interest,
by consenting to forbear in future the wrongs of the past.
" The disposition of the government upon that point has
been decidedly pronounced by facts which need no commen-
tary. From the moment when war was declared, peace has
been sought by it with a steady and unwearied assiduity, at
the same time that every practicable preparation has been
made, and every nerve exerted to prosecute the war with
vigor, if the enemy should persist in his injustice. The law
respecting seamen, the Kussian mission, the instructions sent
to our Charge d'affaires in London, the prompt and explicit
disavowal of every unreasonable pretension falsely ascribed
to us, and the solemn declaration of the government in the
face of the world, that it wishes for nothing more than a fair
and honorable accommodation, would be conclusive proofs
of this, if any proofs were necessary. But it does not require
to be proved, because it is self-evident. What interest, in
70 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the name of common sense, can the government have (dis-
tinctly from that of the whole nation) in a war with Great
Britain ? It is ohvious to the meanest capacity that such a
war must be accompanied by privations, of which no govern-
ment would hazard the consequences, but upon the sugges-
tions of an heroic patriotism. The President and his support-
ers have never been ignorant that those who suffer by a war,
however unavoidable, are apt rather to murmur against the
government than against the enemy, and that while it presses
upon us we sometimes forget the compulsion under which it
was commenced, and regret that it was not avoided with a
provident foresight of its evils.
" It will, therefore, be no easy matter to persuade you
that this war was courted by an administration who depend
upon the people for their jjower, and are proud of that de-
pendence ; or that it will be carried on with a childish ob-
stinacy when it can be terminated with honor and with safety.
You have, on the contrary, a thousand pledges that the gov-
ernment was averse to war, and will give you peace the in-
stant peace is in its power. You know, moreover, that the
enemy will not grant it as a boon, and that it must be
wrung from his necessities. It comes to this, then : whom
will you select as your champions to extort it from liim.? upon
whom will you cast the charge of achieving it against him
in the lists ? "
In 1815 he was elected a Kepresentative in Congress
from the city of Baltimore.
In 1816 he was appointed by President Monroe, Minis-
ter Plenipotentiary to the court of Kussia and special minis-
ter to that of Naples. This was another gratifying tribute
of respect and confidence from one who best knew his quali-
fications as a statesman. Of his conduct in those missions
I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. I have it in my
power to lay before the pubHc a letter written to Robert
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET 71
Goodloe Harper. It is a gem of its kind, a living, breathing
picture, full of beauty and exquisite taste. It exhibits a
power of graphic composition not easily paralleled. I am
sure it will be read with interest. His sketch of the reign-
ing empress is inimitable ; and his fine appreciation of all
that is truly beautiful and fascinating in the charm of woman
shines out in each and every paragraph — and what is most
remarkable, the hues of the portraiture are so shaded and
blended, that while they seem to catch their coloring from
the skies, they are not unreal. It goes as near extravagance
as it could, to be just and faithful ; and never oversteps the
bounds of probability and of fact, as the pen of history has
since testified. There is nothing that I remember so beau-
tiful in the English language, except it be Wordsworth's
touching and exquisite picture of his wife. Mr. Pinkney was
held in peculiar estimation by the reigning Emperor Alexan-
der, who opened a new page in the history of Russia, and re-
deemed his court from the intrigues and excesses that had
well-nigh disgraced it in the eye of the world, dming some
of the preceding reigns.
ME. PINKNEY TO ROB. GOODLOE HAEPER.
"St. Petersburg, Azigust lOth, 1817.
" Deae Sir: — Major General the Baron de Tevyll, who
is about to proceed to the United States as the successor of
Mr. Daschkoft, wishes me to make liim acquainted with
some of my friends in Baltimore ; and you wUl, I hope, take
it in good part that I introduce to you the worthy minister
of such a monarch as Alexander.
" The Baron has seen a good deal of service as a soldier,
and has won an honorable reputation. By bhth a Dutch-
man, he was originally in some corps in the pay of England,
and thence passed into the stafi" and line of Eussia. He
has, however, been more employed as a diplomatist, and has
72 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
recently returned from a mission to Eome in which he con-
ducted himself satisfactorily and ably. In this department
he is said to be very skilful. But what I think of yet greater
consequence is, that he is an excellent man and an accom-
plished gentleman, I speak in part from my own obseiTa-
tion (for I have seen him often here), and partly from what
I learn from others w^ho have long known him. He carries
with liim a great regard for our country, in unison with the
sentiments of the Emperor ; and this feeling, combined with
his characteristic good sense and discretion, will, I am sure,
make him an accej)table minister, not only to our govern-
ment but to our people.
" As I know the interest which you take in whatever
concerns this government, you will not, I think, be displeased
if, now that I have begun to write, I give you a very brief
sketch (not of its policy — for with that you are well ac-
quainted— but) of the great personages who are at the head
of it, I mean the principal members of the Imperial family,
of whom little is known in America.
" The Emperor is a remarkably handsome man, and of
an admirable address. Every body justly ascribes to him the
merit of good intentions, and, with equal justice, the addi-
tional merit of knowing how to use the best means for the ful-
filment of those intentions. He is one of the few men in the
world who, having been seen at a distance in great enterprises
and achievements, gain by being aj^proached and closely ex-
amined. I am mistaken in him if he is not a man of great
abilities. He appears to me to have a clear, vigorous and
cultivated mind — to be steady and sagacious in the pursuit
of his purposes — to be well read in men as well as books —
to be prompt and dexterous in the management of affairs — to
have the wholesome habit of thinking for himself — to be of
a generous, though perhaps somewhat hasty temper — and, in
a word, to be signally fitted for his high vocation.
" r/<e Empress Mother is still a most charming woman.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 73
and when young must Lave been extremely handsome ; she
may be said to do the honors of this splendid court, and it
is right that she should. Her manners are infinitely pleasing
at the same time that they are lofty ; and she is a perfect
mistress of the arts of conversation. She is, moreover, ex-
emplary in all the relations of Ufe, and is beloved for her
goodness by all classes.
" Of the reigning Emj^ress it is impossible to speak in
adequate terms of praise. It is necessary to see her, to be
able to comprehend how wonderfully interesting she is. It
is no exaggeration to say that, with a slight abatement for
the effects of time and severe affliction (produced by the loss
of her children), she combines every charm that contributes
to female lovehness, with all the quaHties that peculiarly be-
come her exalted station. Her figure, although thin, is ex-
quisitely fine. Her countenance is a subduing picture of
feeling and intelligence. Her voice is of that soft and happy
tone that goes directly to the heart and awakens eveiy senti-
ment which a virtuous woman can be ambitious to excite.
Her manner cannot be described or imagined. It is so
graceful, so unafiectedly gentle, so winning and yet so digni-
fied, that (I had almost said) an angel might copy it and im-
prove liis own. Her conversation is suited to this noble ex-
terior. Adapted with a nice discrimination to those to whom
it is addressed, unostentatious and easy, sensible and kind,
it captivates invariably the wise and good, and (what is yet
more difficult) satisfies the frivolous without the slightest ap-
proaches to frivolity. If universal report is to be credited,
there is no virtue for which this incomparable woman is not
distinguished ; and I have reason to be confident, from all
that I have observed and heard, that her understanding
(naturally of the highest order) has been embellished and
improved to an uncommon degree by judicious and regular
and various study. It is not surprising, therefore, that she is
alike adored by the inhabitant of the palace and the cottage,
74 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and that every Russian looks up to lier as to a superior being.
She is indeed a superior being ; and would be adored although
she were not surrounded by Imperial pomp and power. It
is time, however, to have done with these sketches, and to
return to the subject of this letter, into which I did not in-
tend, when I sat down to write, to introduce any other
subject.
" The Baron sets out from St. Petersburgh in a few days ;
but probably will not arrive in the United States until next
winter, as he goes by the route of Vienna, Munich, Holland,
and England."
Mr. Pinkney returned to the United States in 1818 at
his own request, and it is remarkable, that while he never
solicited directly or indirectly a foreign appointment, he was
never recalled but upon liis own expressed wish long resisted
and reluctantly entertained.
He lost no time in indolent inactivity, but immediately
resumed the practice of the law ; and soon proved that he
had lost nothing during his absence from the forum. Mary-
land was too proud of his fame to allow him to continue in
private practice at the bar. She liad honored him with al-
most every post of distinction in her gift, and she now gave
him the finishing proof of her attachment and confidence by
electing him to the Senate of the United States. On the
4th Januaiy, 1820, he took his seat. The country was in
the deepest state of anxiety. A question of momentous in-
terest was then under deliberation. The first men of the
land were participators in the discussion. On the 15th
February he delivered his immortal speech on the Missouri
Compromise. A member of the committee of conference
on the part of the Senate, he proposed the report which was
subsequently adopted by that committee. Little more than
one month a member of that body, he delivered a speecli that
electrified the country, was placed upon the committee that
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 75
settled the difficulty and proposed the report that was made.
Such pre-eminence in so short a time is not often paralleled
in the history of legislation.
During the brief period of his Senatorial career he was
incessantly occupied in the conflicts of the forum ; discussing
questions of the greatest magnitude with competitors from
all quarters of the country, who were rarely if ever equalled,
and never excelled in any other period of the history of the
American Bar. He was preparing a great speech on the
constitution at the time he died ; and from the zest with
which he entered on its preparation and the interest he felt,
it may he affirmed, that, had he lived, he would have doubled
his claim to the lasting gratitude of his countrymen and
recalled the early days of the Republic when constitutional
discussions were rich in wisdom and pre-eminently patriotic in
purpose. But it pleased Di\ine Providence to forbid that
the topmost stone should be placed by his own hands upon
the vast pyramid of his fame. Death palsied the tongue,
ere its trumpet tones were heard in that discussion ; and
none were 2)rivileged to share in the noble thoughts that
were flitting through his brain and panting for utterance.
I now draw near the close of his life. It will be seen
that from the early age of 24 to the day of his death, he
was constantly occupied in the public service at home or
abroad, a service he neither sought nor shunned ; that he
contrived all the while to pursue with unabated zeal his pro-
fessional studies, and retained a practice at the bar without a
parallel in the history of the past or the present. The few
last years of his life were marked with exertions well-nigh
incredible, and rewarded with an income that it would be
deemed exaggeration to name. His intellectual labors ex-
ceeded his physical strength. In the very pride of his power,
in the fifty-eighth year of his age, with a robust constitution,
upon which time seemed scarcely to have left its impress,
" his eye not dimmed nor his natural force abated," he feU
76 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
before the stroke of the destroyer. He had exerted himself
in the discussion of a great cause before the court only a
few days before. On the night of the I7th February, 1822,
he sat up very late, amusing himself with the perusal of the
Pu-ates ; and poured forth into the ear of private friendship
his beautiful strictures upon the characters introduced. His
mind was powerfully excited. I remember to have heard a
gentleman, who sat with him for a short time during that
eventful evening, say that he plaj^ully exhibited the most
astonishing feat of a powerful and retentive memory he had
ever witnessed. That night he was struck down by disease.
He lingered on until the night of the 25th, in severe bodily
suftering, wandering at times and then again in the full pos-
session of his powers, when he breathed his last. His phy-
sician. Dr. Theophilus Parsons, thought him at first quite
out of danger, and so wrote to his afflicted lady. But he
was mistaken in his opinion, as the event sadly proved. His
illness, so sudden and unexpected, produced a profound sen-
sation in the country. His fellow-citizens, wlio had so re-
cently witnessed his wondrous eloquence and still more won-
derful legal logic, and were high in expectancy, as he was
just beginning his preparation for his argument with Taze-
well of Virginia, were illy prepared to follow in the funeral
train that bore him to his resting-2)lace, near the banks of
the beautiful Potomac. He disappeared with startling sud-
denness from the sphere of glory he had so long filled ; and
gi-ave Senators and learned judges paid a befitting tribute to
his memor}'.
There was no gradual breaking down of his giant intel-
lect, no progressive, slowly developed decay in his splendid
faculties. He fell in his might before the tribunal he de-
lighted to address and on the arena he most loved to tread.
He fell where the patriot and the hero would ever desire to
fall, with his eyes on the floating stars and his armor on.
Conscious that he would not survive the shock, he prepared
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 77
to meet the summons and gently fell asleep. There was a
grandeur in the close of his brilliant .career. He could never
brook the idea of rusting out. He preferred the higher des-
tiny of the candle that consumes itself in burning. He
toiled to the last and siDurned the idea of intermitted exer-
tion. His body now rests in the same grave-yard where lie
so many of his illustrious compeers. A simple stone monu-
ment indicates the spot. Eesting my hand upon it, with my
eye on the few letters inscribed thereon, I then and there
realized the emptiness of earth, and asked myself the ques-
tion, what is life with all of earthly renown it has to give,
but a vapor that soon passeth away .^ There is a sweet and
touching simplicity in this the chosen sepulchre of om- distin-
guished countrymen. There is a calm, quiet beauty about
it, that speaks directly to the heart. The green grass has
grown up around it, and the birds sing in the leafy boughs
that overshade it.
Crowds throng the capitol and gaze with delight upon
the lofty dome and ornamented grounds. They hang with
pride and pleasure on the tongue of eloquence which still
finds within its walls an echo. But its burial-ground is to
me a still more attractive object. I love to go and stand
amid the monuments of our past greatness ; and in the sad
and pensive solitudes that are scarce broken by a sound, I
love to muse and meditate on the memories of men long
since dead, as fresh and fragrant as the day they died. There
is the school of patriotism — iherej the nursery of thoughts,
great and pure and noble.
I come now to discuss the intellectual and moral charac-
ter of Mr. Pinkney ; and I am free to confess that I have
chosen a task most difficult to execute. I am impelled to
the undertaking by natural affection, and the conviction that
the exhibition of such a character, in all the hues of its
blended beauty and strength, would be an acceptable ofter-
ing to the young men of the profession, and serve to stim-
78 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ulate and cheer them on in their earnest endeavor to emulate
and if possible excel him of whom I write.
Mr. Pinkney's character (those peculiar and striking
moral and intellectual elements, which were its very warp
and woof) has been pronounced, by Story, a study worthy of
the young men of the land ; one of the grandest themes the
tongue of eloquence, can touch or the mind of genius ana-
lyze. And while I feelj and, feeling, deplore my inability to
do any thing like justice to the theme, I hope that the end
will more than justify the effort. The portrait, which I
shall endeavor to draw, is for the most part intellectual, a
daguerreotype of the soul. His life, as has been already
proved, was not without incident. A large portion of it was
spent in the most stirring events of the most eventful jjeriod
of modern history. But alas ! many of those incidents, which
constitute so important a portion of the attractiveness and
usefulness of biography, have been unhappily lost in the ever
shifting tide of time, or else only survive in a dim oral tra-
dition. His habits and mode of private life are to be seen,
when seen at all, in mere floating report, good as far as it
goes, but necessarily defective in minute and copious detail.
For many of the incidents which ordinarily make up histoiy
and biography I j)ossess no very* high regard, because they
do not serve to illustrate the subject. There are a thousand
facts, the recital of which may amuse the su])erficial and
unreflecting ; but which, as they do not set forth in stronger
light the philosophy and moral of the subject, overload the
memory and are nothing worth. There are other incidents,
however, of the very last importance. Every thing, for ex-
ample, connected with the personal history of a man on
whom the eyes of an admiring world are fixed, is of interest.
All are eager to know his inner life — how he inured his soul
to the stern discipline of study, and sacrificed case and
pleasure to patient, secluded labor — what were his habits of
reflection and the pastimes to which he resorted for amuse-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 79
ment — who were the favorite authors that cheered his hours
of solitude, and what the j^eculiar tastes that adorned his
private walk among men. There is a sort of mystery in the
inner life of the great, which all are eager to explore. The
biographer, who can, out of his abundant materials, gratify
this natural and yearning desire, possesses a powerful hold
upon the sympathies of his readers and exercises a most po-
tent influence for good. It is to be regretted, that so many of
the touching and beautiful incidents, which characterized the
life and illustrated the individuality of William Pinkney,
are lost beyond the hope of recovery. It is to be deeply re-
gretted, that liis observations on men and things, made in
the exciting scenes of his foreign service, were not registered
to be preserved and handed down to the ages following ; for
he was a close and discriminating observer of both men and
things. Often was his intercourse with his more confidential
and intimate friends seasoned with minute and graphic criti-
cisms of what passed under his notice. Some of the most
brilliant specimens of his rare eloquence and profound thought
were poured forth in those unreserved critiques. He wrote
much, and published a good deal while in England, which is
now lost. A number of documents were left in charge of
my father, containing powerful discussions on a vast variety
of the leading topics of the day, which were returned to
him ; all of which have perished.
It has been often the topic of remark and a matter of
surprise, that a mind so active and prolific, exercised in con-
stant contact with so much to thrill and excite it, should
have left so little written behind. But the wonder is solved
by the fact, that there was no effort made to preserve and
hand it down. Could the observations that feU from his lips
in torrents of the richest eloquence extending to an almost
infinite variety of topics be now recalled, they would sujjply
a sad chasm in his eventful hfe and constitute one of the
most attractive pages of biography. For it is in the unre-
80 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
served communion of heart with heart, that the character
shines out and the man is most fully developed. But alas !
there was no Boswell equally competent and eager to retain
those splendid passages of a life that nowhere shone so re-
splendently as in the endearments of a friendship he fully
trusted. It was this constant contact and faithful transcript,
which enabled the wiiter of the life of Johnson to give to the
world the most beautiful and accurate idea of what a biogra-
phy should be, and which lent the most bewitching attrac-
tion to its pages.
I possess no such advantages. The time was when like
diligence would have been rewarded by hke results. But
that time has passed. And in the dearth of this pleasing
and instructive material, I must do the best I can, and let
the moral and intellectual devlopment make up as best it
may for the sad deficiency.
It is as an orator, lawyer, statesman and man, that I
propose to consider liim. In the analysis, while I am free
to confess I write under the influence of long cherished and
ardent admiration, and lay no claim to exemption from the
ordinary infirmities of our nature, I hope I shall not be found
to sacrifice the great principles of truth and justice to my
inordinate attachment to the memory of the dead.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 81
WILLIAM PINKNEY AN ORATOR.
William Pixknet was an orator. But what is oratoiy,
and who is worthy of this august title ? This is a most in-
teresting inquiry, interesting in itself and more so still in
the light it casts upon the illustrious subject of this me-
moir. If we take Cicero's definition, who most admirably
illustrated the thing he defined, " composite, ornate, copiose
eloqui " — or the still more comprehensive " quam oh rem, si
quis universam et jDropriam oratoris \dm definire complecti-
que vult, is orator erit, mea sententia, hoc tam gvavi dignus
nomine, qui, qusecumque res inciderit, quffi sit dictione, ex-
plicanda, prudenter, et composite, et ornate et memoriter
dicat, cum quadam etiam actionis dignitate." I repeat, if
we take Cicero's definition, there are few among the h^dng
or the dead, who can be found equally entitled to the term.
Not to dwell upon his physical advantages, his fine com-
manding person, his voice of singular sweetness, variety, com-
pass and flexibility of tone, and his impressive and emphatic
action ; he possessed a most vigorous and brilliant imagina-
tion, and a depth of keen, discriminating analysis in union
with the most lively and acute sensibilities. His command
of language was marvellous in the extreme. For beauty,
force and splendor of diction, he was unrivalled. It flowed
forth in a continuous stream of surprising accuracy and rich-
ness ; no. word misapplied, no word misapprehended. True it
is, he had some few natural defects of manner and some few
artificial. But still with all, and despite of aU, he was an
orator of the very first class and among the very foremost of
that class. If by oratory we mean the power to mould and
82 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
melt the heart at pleasure, captivate and thrill the under-
standing and sway the judgment — if by oratory we mean
not only the magic tone, and emphatic look, and commanding
gesture, but the capacity to express in words best suited to
the theme the vivid and grand conceptions of the brain, and
the imagination to combine and weave them together, and
then the power to breathe into them life and energy — if all
this be meant by oratory, then William Pinkney was an
orator.
There are difi'erent kinds of oratory as there are different
degrees in its j)erfection. There is the soft and persuasive,
which falls on the heart like dew and lingers on the enchanted
ear like dulcet notes of music ; and there is the impetuous
and overpowering, which bears down all before it, hke the
onward rush of the foaming cataract. Mr, Pinkney's oratory
was impetuous and overpowering. He could touch the ten-
der chords with the hand of a master, and call forth, when
he willed, the softest tones to melt and subdue the listener ;
but most commonly he spoke to command and bear down,
and such was the might and majesty of liis eloquence that it
took captive every hearer at its will. It was masterful and
victorious. The elements of power were blended in it so ex-
quisitely, that you could scarce discover where the one began
or the other ended. Matter and manner alike conspired to
make him an orator. He was as deep as he was brilliant.
His rhetoric was thus convincing and his oratory thus mas-
terful, because they were the lustre and the solidity of the
diamond combined. Full of ths most magnificent illustra-
tions, the birth of an imagination naturally strong, and
cultivated with the most studious care and exquisite taste,
and enriched with the latest stores of an ever accumulating
learning ; he threw all over the dry discussions of the law
a bewitching fascination, and set forth its august principles
with a fulness and a power seldom evoked.
The testimony which is borne to the marvellous impres-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PIXKXEY. 83
siveness of Mr. Pinkney's speaking upon any subject on any
forum, at the bar or in the Senate chamber, or before the
populace, cannot be mistaken. It comes up from too many
sources to falsify itself Eeport speaks of verdicts forced
from juries by his eloquent tongue ; and learned judges, who
were compelled to bring around them, and summon to their
aid, all the sterner attributes of their office in their endeavor
to dissipate the spell of the charmer ; not once, but again
and again. The writer of this memoir has often heard the
late John Stephen (one of the judges of the old court of
Appeals, one of the purest and most upright of judges, an
ornament of the bench where he dispensed law and justice,
not more respected for his ripe learning than his rare modesty,
nice sense of judicial propriety and love of genuine forensic
eloquence) say, that he had heard Mr. Pinkney indulge in
such strains of lofty eloquence in so many pleadings before
the court, that he wholly despaired of ever hearing any thing
like it again ; and that too, when returning from the capitol
of the country and the presence of the American Senate
chamber in the day of its proudest fame. Judge Story, an-
other of the bright lights of American jurisprudence (I
might say one of the brightest), tells us in his exquisite sketch,
that " no one could listen to him for many minutes without
forgetting all the defects of art or taste in the overpowering
sensations of delight ! " And in Story's life just issued from
the press, there are many additional proofs of the power
wielded by Pinkney over that consummate judge. In letter
after letter, Story pours forth expressions of wonder and as-
tonishment at the surpassing splendor of his mind, and the
depth of his ratiocination, and copiousness and compass of his
legal learning. Amid the living forms of Dexter and Emmet,
orators of whom any land might be proud, Pinkney stood
forth the confessed favorite of Story. That I may not be
supposed to overestimate his opinion of Mr. Pinkney, I will
insert one or two extracts from letters recently published.
84 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
" Every time I hear Pinkney he rises higher and higher in my
estimation. His clear and forcible manner of putting his
case before the court, his powerful and commanding eloquence,
occasionally illuminated with sparkHng lights, but always
logical and approj)riate, and above all, his accurate and dis-
criminating law knowledge, which he pours out with wonder-
ful precision — give him in my opinion a great superiority
over every man whom I have known. I have seen in a single
man each of those qualities separate, but never before com-
bined in so extraordinary a degree." Again: " His genius
and eloquence were so lofty, I might almost say, so unrivalled,
his learning so extensive, liis ambition so elevated, his polit-
ical and constitutional principles so truly just and pure, his
weight in the public councils so decisive, his character at the
bar so peerless and commanding, that there seems now left a
dismal and perplexing vacancy. I write to you while sitting
in court, and as the argument is now taking an interesting
turn, I must now stop and listen ; but never do I expect to
hear a man like Pinkney. He was a man who appears
scarcely once a century." Speaking of Dexter he adds: "I
always considered him second only to our inimitable friend
Pinkney. In the phrase of a painter, I would say Pinkney's
character and mind would be a great study." — Story's Life.
Vol. I.
And who was Story ? Himself one of the first men the
country has produced, in whom the very soul of eloquence
glowed ; a stern judge called upon to weigh arguments and
resist eloquence, save where they were the faithful echoes of
law and justice, with no spirit of rivalry to bias his judg-
ment, and all his enthusiastic love of the North to excite
his sectional pride — is spell-bound, thrilled, transported by
the wonderful powers of Pinkney's oratory. A mixed audience
might have been deceived, and juries hurried on beyond dis-
cretion, by the melodious tone, the look, or gesture ; but
Story could only have been so moved and excited by the true
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 85
genius of oratory. I know notliing which affords a more
demonstrative evidence of the power of an orator, than the
ability to move and sway so consummate a judge, himself pre-
eminently skilled in all the mysteries of the moving art.
Marshall, a more severe judge of oratory, because not him-
self of the imaginative cast, paid a no less marked and
splendid tribute in the memorable opinion in the Nereide.
"With a pencil dipped in the most vivid colors, and
guided by the hand of a master, a sj^lendid portrait has been
drawn, exhibiting this vessel and her freighter as forming a
single figure, composed of the most discordant materials of
peace and war. So exquisite was the skill of the artist, so
dazzling the garb in which the figure was painted, that it
required the exercise of that cold investigating faculty which
ought always to belong to those who sit on this bench, to
discover its only imperfection — its want of resemblance."
— 3Ia7'shairs Opinion in the Nereide.
I dwell upon these frank and ingenuous attestations, be-
cause it has been sometimes denied that Mr. Pinkney was an
orator.
The distinguished biographer of Mr, Wirt, whose tran-
scendent talents I am neither slow to acknowledge nor re-
luctant to praise, has done injustice — I will do him the jus-
tice to believe, unintentional — to the memory of Mr. Pink-
ney. That accomplished scholar says (page 400, Vol. I.) that
" impartial and judicious estimate of Mr. Pinkney's powers
and acquirements seems rarely to have been accorded to him "
— and then again he speaks " of exaggerated praise." Now
the learned and Hon. Ex-Secretary of the Navy will, I think,
find it difficult to sustain his judgment, when he remembers,
that a Story professes himself the delighted captive of an
eloquence as rare as it was briUiant, " embellished, when the
occasion called for it, with all the gorgeous amplitude and
magnificence of a Bolingbroke and Burke ; " and fist ens to
the warnings of a Marshall, declaring that it required all the
86 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
sterner quailities of the judge to resist tlie power of the ad-
vocate. If this be exaggerated praise — if impartial and ju-
dicious estimate of power and acquirement he not here ac-
corded, we must adopt the opinion that Marshall and Story-
were not competent to judge, or else given to sycophantic
and servile praise. The trophies of Mr. Pinkney's powers
are too numerous and exalted to admit of depreciation with
impunity, now that the winding-sheet and shroud are the
only covering of the mighty dead ; • and surely on no soil less
appropriate, and by no pen less befitting, could the wrong be
perpetrated, which would dim in the least the fame of Pink-
ney, than on the soil of his birth, and by the pen of one,
whom his fellow-citizens have delighted to honor as another
of her distinguished sons.
The title of Mr. Pinkney to the character of an orator de-
pends not then on the breath of mere popular applause. It
is based on a rock impervious to the assaults of envy — the
possession of the highest intellectual endowments and the
acliievement of the rarest intellectual victories, not obtained
over ignorance and folly, but over the noblest and most com-
manding intellect ; not once, but again and again, amid com-
petitors with whom it would be a signal honor to dispute the
palm for ascendency.
That Mr. Pinkney was the butt of much illiberal and
envious depreciation, I am ready to admit. But the names
of his depreciators will perish, while his own endures. Who
need be reminded that a member of Congress held up his
speech on the Missouri compromise to pubKc scorn and ridi-
cule ; and is ignorant that the anonymous calumny has out-
lived every other deed of the author. Defamation is easy.
Fault-finding is the work of little minds. If the fact that
Mr, Pinkney was " hawked at by such mousing owls, birds
of the night," who could not endure the bright shining of
the sun, be proof that judicious and impartial estimate has
been rarely accorded to him ; — why then, indeed, the biogra-
LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 87
pher of Mr. Wirt has proved his point. But if the facts
above enumerated — the power wielded by Mr. Pinkney over
such minds as Story's and Marshall's ; his holding, time and
again, large promiscuous audiences spell-bound through the
long discussions of dry questions of law — be not proof of
oratorical power and profound acquirement, why, then, there
can be no proof adduced which is conclusive of the point.
There will be always envious detractions, jealous out-
breakings. Some minds are proof against proof. I do not
mean to intimate that so distinguished a scholar as Mr.
Kennedy, can be classified with such. I only regret that he
should have pennitted himself to lend even a seeming sanc-
tion to their crude criticisms, and recorded, as his deliberate
judgment, the opinion "that judicious and impartial esti-
mate of Mr. Pinkney's power and acquirements was rarely
accorded to him." I regret it, because the severity of his
censure must fall upon the best judges of forensic ability in
the land, and place him among the critics of one, whom, to
use the language of Johnson, if we are correct in our facts,
^' it is vain to blame and useless to praise."
Had I undertaken to indulge in a mere indiscriminate
praise and immoderate eulogy, Mr. Kennedy would be safe
from impeachment ; for his competency to judge would be
deemed greater than my own. But facts are stubborn things,
and no man can overturn them. It is to facts I appeal. The
claim to oratory is one thing ; the acliievements of oratory
are another. The claim I predicate on the achievements,
and I feel a strong confidence, that the judgment of Mr.
Kennedy cannot stand so long as those achievements exist.
My appeal is from Mr. Kennedy to the Storys and Marshalls
of the land.
John Eandolph knew and felt the power of Mr, Pinkney ;
and on the floor of Congress, after full opportunities of judg-
ing, he pronounced the following eulogy :
" We have been talking of General Jackson, and a greater
88 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
man than he is not here, but gone for ever ! I allude, sir, to
the boast of Maryland and the pride of the United States, —
the pride of us all, and particularly the pride and ornament
of that profession of which you, Mr. Speaker (Stephenson),
are a member, and an eminent one. He was a man with
whom 1 lived when a member of this house, and a new one
too ; and ever since he left it for the other — I speak it with
pride — in habits not merely negatively friendly, but of kind-
ness and cordiality. The last time I saw him was on Sat-
urday, the last Saturday but one, in the pride of life, and
full j)ossession and vigor of all his faculties, in that lobby.
He is now gone to his account (for as the tree falls so must
it lie) where we must all go — where I must soon go, and by
the same road too — the course of nature ; and where all of
us, put off the evil day as we may, must also go. For what
is the past but a span ; and which of us can look forward
to as many years as we have lived ? The last act of inter-
course between us was an act, the recollection of which I
would not be without for all the offices that all the men of
the United States have filled, or ever shall fill. He had, in-
deed, his faults, his foibles ; I should rather say his sins.
Who is without them ? Let sufch, such only, cast the first
stone. And these foibles, if you will, which every body
could see, because every body is clear-sighted with regard to
the ftiults and foibles of others, he, I have no doubt, would
have been the first to acknowledge on a proper representation
of them. Every thing now is hidden from us, — not, God
forbid, that utter darkness rests upon the grave, which, hid-
eous as it is, is lighted, cheered, and warmed with light from
heaven ; not the impious fire fabled to be stolen from heaven
by the heathen, but by the Spirit of the living God, whom
we profess to worship, and whom I hope we shall spend the
remainder of the day in worshipping ; not with mouth honor,
but in our hearts, in spirit and in truth ; that it may not be
said of us also, ' this people draweth nigh to me with their
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 89
lips, but their heart is far from me.' Yes, it is just so ; he is
gone. I will not say that our loss is irreparable, because such
a man as has existed, may exist again. There has been a
Homer, there has been a Shakspeare, there has been a
Milton, there has been a Newton. There may be another
Pinkney, but there is none now. And it was to announce
this event that I have risen. I am almost inclined to beheve
in presentiments. I have been, all along, as well assured of
the fatal termination of that disease with which he was af-
flicted, as I am now ; and I have dragged my weary limbs
before sunrise to the door of his sick chamber (for I would
not intrude on the sacred grief of the family), almost every
morning since. From the fii'st, I had almost no hope."
"In those early and pious visitations to the sick chamber
of virtue and genius (says Mr. Garland, the accompKshed
biographer of Kandolph), he was frequently accompanied by
the Chief Justice. What a beautiful and touching tribute
to the memory of Pinkney, that the greatest orator and
statesman, and the greatest jurist of his age, should watch
with so much interest and tenderness the last expiring breath
of him, who in Hfe had rivalled the one in eloquence and the
other in profound learning.*' — llandolph's Life, vol. ii. 169, 170.
No man was more sparing of his praise, — and yet he
bowed in willing homage before the oratory of Pinkney, be-
cause it was genuine and pure ; thought and feeling com-
bined, dressed in the most exquisite garb ; words of beauty
and images of fire.
I make on this head no comparisons. I desire to make
none. In a country that has given birth to a Patrick Henry,
an Ames, a Dexter, a Wirt, a Clay, a Calhoun, and a Web-
ster, orators who may well vie with those of Greece, and
Rome ; it is not my purpose to institute invidious compari-
sons. But still among them, in the foremost rank, stood
William Pinkney; and that as I have shown, not in my too
partial estimate, but upon the authority of those who were
90 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
farthest removed from the bias of prejudice, and otherwise most
competent to decide.
A contributor to the North American, vol. xxiv. page 68,
thus writes :
" To the time of his last appearance in public in Wash-
ington, the court room was always thronged with the wise,
the learned and the fashionable, when it was known that he
was to speak ; and he uniformly riveted the attention of his
auditors through the technical detail of liis longest and diyest
arguments." And the same might be said, with equal truth,
of his repeated efforts in other tribunals in other portions of
the Union. This one fact is worth a thousand assertions, in
proof of his power as an orator.
The discussions of the Senate chamber are of deep and
absorbing interest to the crowds that are accustomed to at-
tend upon them. The orator has in his subject a strong
and powerful chord of sympathy between himself and his
audience. Not so, except in a few particular cases, in the
discussions before the court. And yet Mr. Pinkney kept his
fascinating spell upon the large and promiscuous crowd, at
the same time he poured into the ear of judicial wisdom the
wonderful stream of his concise and profound legal logic.
The wise and the learned would sit for hours delighted and
thrilled, while such masters of the law, as the judges of the
supreme court, were time and again greeted with a chain of
legal argument as massive and solid in its structure, as though
each link was of diamond solidity and the whole a cable of
impregnable strength.
I give to the malicious and envious the full weight of the
defects they are able to discover, — I listen unmoved to their
fastidious criticisms, so long as this one fact (excelled in none
of the features of mental and moral grandeur by the present
or the past) remains undisputed and indisj)utable. The
eloquence of Pericles is known chiefly by its effects, and it
has been said of him by one competent to judge, " that he
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 91
was strong in the weakness of his audience." Not so, the
subject of this memoir. Mr. Gilmer of Virginia furnishes
me, in his masterly sketches, with a happy conclusion to this
portion of my portraiture ! " The powers of Mr. Pinkney's
mind seemed to strengthen with his years and expand with
his subject. Of all the exhibitions of his eloquence, his reply
to Mr. King in the Senate on the Missouri restriction " (of
which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter), "was, perhaps,
that in which the force of his genius was the most conspicu-
ous and ovei-whelming, and enough of itself to entitle him to
the first place among living orators. He not only sustained
his reputation, but surpassed the most exaggerated' ideas
which had been entertained of his abihties. Seldom in either
hemisphere has the English language been the medium of
sublimer eloquence. He shed lustre upon letters, renown
upon Congress, glory on the country! The United States
owe lasting obligations to Mr. Pinkney for having scattered
the forces of poUtical crusaders before they began their devas-
tations."— Gilmer's Sketclies, p. 53.
Eloquentia aut £equavit pr£estantissimorum gloriam aut
excessit. . Quis sententiis aut acutior aut crebrior ? Quis
verbis aut ornatior aut elegantior ? Audax orator, cumula-
tus omni laude.
92 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
PINKNEY A LAWYER.
Mb. Pinkney was more than an orator. He was a consum-
mate lawyer. The bar was his own chosen and favorite
arena. If he left it for a season, it was only to serve his
countiy and recruit his exhausted strength, after labors
that would have crushed a less vigorous constitution ; and
to return to it with increased ardor and intensity, and
with additional stores of vast and varied learning. He
studied law, as before stated, intently amid the blandishments
and glitter of foreign courts, and never for a moment lost
sight of this, the calling in life most suited to his tastes and
congenial to his habits. Not more remarkable for depth and
accuracy than extent and variety of legal learning, he stood
by universal suffrage in the very foremost rank of advocates.
Every inch of his fame in this department was won by giant
struggles and herculean labors. He relied not on the singu-
lar quickness of his perceptions. He depended not on force
of genius. Not satisfied with having mastered all the great
principles of the legal science, he sought in each case he
argued, to enlarge his own professional attainments. His
hard-earned fame he kept constantly before him ; and each
succeeding effort was but a struggle to surpass himself.
It was his great ambition to toil night and day in the
investigation and elucidation of the merits of a cause, so that
he might hope to enlighten each tribunal he addressed. By
turning to the law re23orts of the day, meagre and insufficient
as most of them are, we shall find not a few acknowledgments
from sources whose names are praise, that he did not labor
in vain. Those records teem with the matured fruits of his
large experience and profound learning. The philosophy of
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 93
the Law was his study and deL'ght ; and ever animated by
the most exalted sense of the dignity-and grandeur of his
profession, he always addressed himself to the higher feehngs
and principles of our nature.
Mr. Pinkney possessed two very rare quahties, rare at
least in their combination, viz., the power of concentration,
and the power of amplification. And each he possessed in
marvellous perfection. He could go down to the very kernel,
and contract the lines of his argument, until at the very
heart of his subject you could see it through and through ; or
he could sow his arguments broadcast, and expand and amplify
them, until you were completely overpowered by the surpassing
luxuriance of thought and fertihty of intellectual resources.
He particularly excelled in the statement of a cause.
Judge Story says of him, that his very statement was an
argument. And I know not that a more striking proof
could be afforded of the power of condensation. There was
one thing that marked the character of Mr. Pinkney's mind,
as I have already intimated, and strikingly distinguished it
from that of most other men, ancient and modern. I allude
to the union of depth and brilhancy. He was the most
argumentative of speakers ; and when he chose, he could be
dazzlingly gorgeous. Judge Marshall bore honorable witness
to his argumentative powers, of which he possessed a rare
opportunity of judging, when he pronounced him, as Story
tells us, the closest reasoner he had ever heard. Of the
scope and vigor of his imagination it would be idle to sj^eak.
The opinion has been entertained, and not unfrequently
advanced, that brilhancy and depth are, as it were, antago-
nistic to each other ; dissociahiles res, which are incapable of
combination in a single mind. Profundity has been associated
with dryness. Tropes and figures of rhetoric, simUes and
metaphors, have been deemed beneath the use of a logical
reasoner. That they are, in point of fact, oftentimes dis-
sociahiles res, no one will or can dispute, who has witnessed
94 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the mental developments of the age, and seen how one will
excel in splendid declamation who is totally disqualified to
unravel the intricate thread of an argument, and pursue a
close logical discussion ; and another exhibit great powers of
reasoning, who is incapable of soaring, on strong wing,
among things grand and beautiful. But that there is any
antagonism between the two I totally deny. The imagination
is not opposed to the reasoning faculty, or inconsistent with
it. On the contrary it is, when possessed in perfection, one
of its most valuable and powerful auxiliaries. It gi'oups and
combines, and then all over the dry field of argumentation
it difiuses the energy of an ever active life. Johnson main-
tained " that metaphorical expression is of great excellence
in style, where it is used with propriety, because it gives us
two ideas for one, and conveys the meaning more luxuriously,
and generally with a perception of delight." It is a gross
and unwarrantable disparagement of the imagination, to con-
sider its chief office to be embellishment. The imagination
is eminently practical. It sees things in their strongest light
and sets them forth with uncommon vigor. When combined
with a faculty mighty to reason, it is eminently argumenta-
tive. By making the discussion more grand, and imparting
something of its own magnificence to the mere deductions
of reason, it does not diminish the strength or abate the
vigor. It throws light and heat all around it. It illustrates,
enforces, deepens the impression. It is the soul of argument,
and in its sublimest and mightiest soarings, it is vehement
argumentation. Of course, I am sjiealdng of imagination
when in combination with logical precision and mental force
— imagination in its highest form and noblest development ;
the imagination of a well-balanced and thoroughly disci-
plined mind. Where the reasoning faculty is weak, the im-
agination cannot supply the deficiency. It may dazzle and
corruscate, but it cannot enlighten. It may inflame and ex-
cite the feelings, but it will not assist or inform the judgment.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 95
But where the reasoning power exists and exerts itself, the
imagination, seizing hold of the deductions of reason, and fol-
lowing it pari passu in its most elaborate processes; or else
anticipating it in its somewhat prophetic spirit, gives them
life, and clothes them with increased might and power. I
am not combating a shadow — endeavoring to refute a mere
figment of my own fancy. For what is more common than
the expression, that a speech or argument is beautiful and
splendid, but that it wants depth and force — or that a speech
is solid and convincing, but diy and argumentative. The
expression has its foundation in the popular misapprehension
of the subject. What is dry, is oftentimes deemed profound,
because it is dry ; and what is splendid is deemed unsub-
stantial, because it is splendid. Men forget that there is a
diamond in the mind, a diamond brilliancy and a diamond
solidity, — that the imagination is the handmaid of reason,
— that where the power to explore the depths of a subject
exists, the imagination is an efficient helper in the explora-
tion. The union of the imaginative with the reasoning
faculty, is as rare as the possession of first-rate intellect. But
it is not a thing impossible. It has existed, — it does exist ;
and where it exists, there can be no reasonable doubt that
the one strengthens and enriches the other, — that the two
are more powerful in union. " It was not a chain of reason-
ing, though close and cogent as if delivered in the Areopa-
gus ; it was not only a display of imagination, however chas-
tened from Asiatic luxuriance ; nor an appeal to the passions,
however mo\ang and vehement ; it was a combination of all
that in the language of a distinguished Greek scholar gave
to the eloquence of Pericles its power and charm, and secured
for him the title of the Prince of eloquence in his genera-
tion." It was a like combination that gave to Mr. Pinlmey
his vast celebrity as an orator and lawyer, during a life spent
in the constant struggles of the forum. His imagination
never degenerated into mere vapid declamation. It burned
96 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and glowed all along the path of his argument, and enriched
it occasionally with what Judge Story calls "sparkling
lights/' never alien to the strict line of the argument or held
up in the wrong place. His imagination was but the poetic
form of his ratiocination — the dazzhng garb now and then
thrown over the cooler deductions of his reasoning. Indeed,
the imagination and the reasoning faculty were the workshop,
in which his massive argument was woven, and it would have
been impossible to sej)arate the golden and silver threads of
the woof, without wholly marring the texture. Burke was
the profoundest of philosoj)hers, and yet he possessed a huge
imagination, which poured a flood of light over the pathway
of his argumentation ; and he must be pitied, who cannot
see that the profound was rendered more profound by the vast
compass and gorgeous magnificence of the imagination, which
enUghtcned while it delighted. Barrow was a profound the-
ological reasoner, and yet he was a man of marvellous scope
of imagination. Hooker was the most masterful of them all,
and who doubts that his immortal work was made the more
immortal by the gorgeousness of the imagination that glows
and burns through all its pages.
Mr. Pinkney was accustomed to sound all the depths of
the subjects he investigated and discussed. Superficiality he
detested, — a false and spurious pretence to learning he ab-
horred,— and yet he could indulge at times in passages of
such inimitable beauty and power, so natural and artistically
woven into the thread of his argument, that you could scarce
discover where they began or ended. They seemed, as indeed
they did, to grow out of the subject, to be an essential cle-
ment in it, the outbursting flower from the parent stem, the
living germ on the thrifty and vigorous plant. No one lield
in greater abhorrence or more severely reprobated, as will be
seen in his own rich criticism on political sketches, what
might be called a sickly sentimentalism of style, or an ex-
travagant and UTCgular indulgence of fancy. Perspicuity
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 97
^was the thing of priiilaiy importance in his estimation. He
allowed nothing to darken or obscure his meaning. His fig-
ures were never crowded together, or jumbled up in motley
confusion. They were never far-fetched or unnatural. Ex-
quisite taste guided the helm, and the imagination in its
richest glow was ever obedient to the pilot. He never used
it for mere ornament. He used it as the handmaid of reason.
Force and appropriateness of diction and simplicity of illus-
tration were the chosen vehicles of his thoughts. Strength
made beautiful, when the occasion called for it, gave a pecu-
liar fascination and nerve to his style. Thought, however,
always j)i'edominated over expression. Imagination in its
highest and purest form occupied in all his discussions the
place of an uncurbed, unrestrained, artificial fancy. To con-
vince, not dazzle, was his liigh object ; and yet from the native
splendor of his mind, he insensibly dazzled in the very act
of convincing.
His style of argument on legal questions was peculiar to
himself, founded on no particular model. It was original
and striking. In many discussions before the Supreme Court,
those pecuhar powers v^'ere conspicuously displayed. I will
mention but two, the Bank case and the Nereide ; and I
cite these two, because while in themselvfes of deepest mag-
nitude, I am enabled to review a criticism of Mr. Legare of
South Carolina on the former, and an animadversion of Mr.
Phillips, the Irish barrister, in his life of Curran, on an inci-
dent connected with the latter. The array of counsel in the
Bank case was truly splendid. By the side of Pinkney stood
Webster and Wirt, " the Gothic and Corinthian " pillar ;
opposed to them were Martin, Hopkinson and Walter Jones
— the last named, the connecting link that binds the past to
us, a man of the rarest powers of eloquence, and the j^ro-
foundest powers of reasoning. It was not possible for six
such minds to be brought into such stirring proximity, with-
out the keenest intellectual rivalry. The theme was worthy
7
98 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of the men, and the scene of the conflict worthy of both.^
It was in this bright array of talent, that Mr. Pinkney rose
to conckide the argument ; and although he was three days
in the discussion, Judge Story tells us that it was " worth
a journey from Salem to hear it."
]\Ir. Legare pronounces a ratlier dogmatic opinion on the
merits of the argument. He jeers Mr. Pinkney for not go-
ing beyond the English text-books, and taunts him for not
going more deeply into the subject than Dr. Blackstone. It
almost excites a smile to hear such a charge brought against
one who stood, in his day, the very embodiment of legal
learning and patient research. Our surprise is increased,
because of this very speech Justice Story thus writes (vol. I.
page 325) : " I never in my whole life heard a greater speech.
He spoke like a great statesman and patriot, and sound con-
stitutional lawyer — all the cobwebs of sophistry and meta-
physics about State rights and State sovereignty he brushed
away with a mighty besom."
Mr. Legare does not do Mr. Pinkney's argument in that
cause full and amj)le justice. He says that Mr. Pinkney
" began his argument by declaring that he did not consider
the constitutionality of the Bank as an open question, because
it had been assumed by Congress and acquiesced in for thirty
years." Let us now look into the report in Mr. Wheaton,
and see how the case really stands. After a most admirable
and masterly discussiou of the powers of the State and
General Governments, Mr. Pinkney contended, that the ques-
tion of the constitutionality of the Bank was to be settled on
authority and principle. " The constitution acts on the peo-
ple by means of powers communicated directly from the peo-
ple. No State in its corporate capacity ratified it, but it
was proposed for adoption to popular conventions. It springs
from the people precisely as the State constitutions spring
from the people, and acts on them in a similar manner. The
federal powers are just as sovereign as those of the States.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 99
The constitutionality of the establishment of the Bank, as one
of the necessary means to carry into effect the authority vested
in the General Government, is no longer an open question. It
has been long since settled by decisions of the most revered
authority, legislative, executive^ and judicial. A legislative
construction in a doubtful case, persevered in for a course of
years, ought to be binding on the court. This however is
not a question of construction merely, but of political neces-
sity, on which Congress must decide. The members of the
convention, who framed the constitution, passed into the
first Congress by which the new government was organized.
They must have understood their own work. They declared
that the constitution gave to Congress the power of incorpo-
rating a bank. It is an historical fact of great importance
in this discussion, that amendments to the constitution were
actually proposed, in order to guard against the establishment
of commercial monopolies. The legislative precedent estab-
lished in 1791 has been followed up by a series of acts of
Congress, all conferring the authority."
It was not the mere assumption by Congress of the power,
but the settlement of the question by the most revered
authorities, legislative, executive, and judicial, upon which
Mr. Pinkney relied in the discussion of that great cause ; and
that, too, in a doubtful case of construction. The report of
the cause may be found in Wheaton's reports, vol. 4, Febru-
ary term, 1819. And whoever desires to test the value of
Mr. Legare's strictures need only turn to Mr. Pinkney's ar-
gument, where he will find, even in the skeleton gleanings"^
of the accomplished reporter, one of the ablest and most
unanswerable expositions of the great constitutional question,
which has since been exhumed by the refined metaphysicians
of South Carolina to agitate and disturb the peace of the
Union, but with no other result than their own chagrin and
disappointment. It is sufficient to remind the reader of
Mr. Legare's critique, that the reasonings of this speech
100 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
upon the principles of constitutional law insrolved, were en-
dorsed by the Storys and Marshall s of this land; and in-
grafted on the statute books of the court, though not deeper
than Dr. Blackstone. Judge Marshall's opinion gives a judi-
cial clothing to many points of Pinkney's argument.
I regret the necessity of being compelled to notice the
review in question, because Mr, Legare is not now alive ;
but at the time he wrote it the voice of Pinkney had been
hushed in death, and his name was inscribed on the cold
marble.
The speech on the Nereide, though not so successful with
the court, was a splendid specimen of forensic power. It
has been long before the public, though in mutilated form
and garbled extracts, and they can judge of it for them-
selves.
I will be excused for pausing a moment, while I examine
a statement made by Mr. Phillips in his life of Curran, of a
collision between Mr. Emmet and Mr. Pinkney in the cause
of the Mary and that of the Nereide, which is wide of the
truth. Speaking of Mr. Pinkney's assault he says, " Em-
met's demeanor was such in noticing it, that shame extorted
next day from his defeated adversary a eulogium which he
doubtless estimated at what it was worth," and then he puts
into Mr. Emmet's mouth the following language : "I know
not by what name arrogance and presumption may be called
on this side of the water, but I am sure he never could have ac-
quired those manners in the polite circles of Europe which
he had long frequented as a public minister." He refers for
authority to Madden's lives of United Irishmen. By parti-
cular examination, I find the affair thus stated by him:
" The latter (Mr. Pinkney) closed liis argument in a very
important cause, and with his characteristic aiTOgance alluded
to the fact of Mr. Emmet's emigration to the United States.
When he had concluded his argument, Mr. Emmet rose and
took up the mode and manner in which his opponent had
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 101
treated him. He said lie was Mr. Pinkney's equal in birth,
rank, and connections, and he was not his enemy. He knew
not by what name arrogance and presumption might be called
on this side of the ocean, but sure he was that Mr. Pinkney
never acquired those manners in the jDolite circles of Europe,
which he had frequented as a public minister. Mr. Pink-
ney was not ready at retort, and made no reply. But a
few days afterwards, it so happened that Mr. Emmet and
Mr. Pinkney were again opposed to each other in a cause of
magnitude, and it fell to Mr.. Emmet's part to close the
argument, who was determined that his antagonist should be
put in mind of his former deportment and expressions. Pink-
ney was aware of the thunderbolt in store, and took the op-
portunity of paying to Mr. Emmet's genius, fame, and pri-
vate worth, the highest tribute of respect. This respect was
never again violated." — Madden' s Life of Thomas A. Emmet
He added further — " When Mr. Emmet rose out of his place
as before stated. Chief Justice Marshall indicated great un-
easiness, thinking that something unpleasant might be the re-
sult. Mr. Justice Livingston remarked in a whisper, ' Let him
go on ; I will answer that he says nothing rude or improper.'
With this, as well as the result, the Chief Justice was satis-
fied." Mr. PhilHps gives Madden as his authority, and Mad-
den makes his statement, supported by not so much as a
shadow of authority. Mr. Phillips improves upon liis author-
ity, and speaks of Mr. Pinkney as a defeated adversary.
Justice Story witnessed the first competition of those two
illustrious men in the highest court of the Union : and so
did Mr. Wheaton. We have their evidence in the case. In
the first cause, that of the Mary, in which Mr. Pinkney in-
dulged in some warmth of expression, justified as he at the
time thought by the too free strictm-es of Mr. Emmet on one
of his clients, so far from being the routed champion Mr.
Phillips woidd represent, Justice Story, who sat in the cause,
tells us in his published sketch of Mr. Emmet, that Mr.
102 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
Pinkney " won an easy victory, and pressed liis advantages
with vast dexterity, and, as Mr. Emmet iliought, with some-
what the display of triumph," So much for one of the as-
sertions of Mr. Phillips made professedly on authority, and
yet unsustained by his own authority, and disproved by an-
other. In the case of the Nereide, in which Mr. Emmet
delivered a most masterly speech, Justice Story informs us
that Mr. Emmet began by paying a generous tribute to the
talents and acquirements of his opponent, whom fame and
fortune had followed both in Europe and America. It is
impossible, at this late day, to state what Mr. Emmet in
reality said. But one thing is certain, the representations
of excited partisans must be received with great distrust ;
especially where the recorded statement of so distinguished
a witness as Justice Story or Mr. Wheaton gives it no man-
ner of countenance. Mr. Pinkney made the amende honor-
able, and avowed his regret that he should have indulged in
a seemingly unkind criticism upon his illustrious opponent,
which was "deepened hy i\\Q forbearance and urhanity of his
reply." Is it credible that Mr. Pinkney would publicly, in
the presence of the court, where language so grossly insulting
as that put into Mr. Emmet's lips must have been used, if
used at all, have spoken of the forbearance and urbanity of
a reply which had just branded him with insolence and pre-
sumption and ill-breeding ? Will any one (who was at all
acquainted with Mr. Pinkney, or the court of which Judge
Marshall was the honored head) believe that such common
billingsgate abuse was either endured by him or the court.
I have far too much respect for Mr. Emmet to believe that
his lips were so employed. I think the statement sufficiently
disproved by Mr. Emmet's high praise of Mr. Pinkney as re-
corded by Story ; and the terms of Pinkney's own apology,
an apology which does him infinite credit, whose eloquence
is only equalled by its magnanimity; as well as the inherent
probabihties of the case. As to the insinuations of Mr, Mad-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 103
den, that Mr. Pinkney was induced by fear to disarm Mr.
Emmet of the thunderbolt of vengeance by an unfelt and
hypocritical profession of admiration, or that he was not
ready at retort, it may pass current among foreigners, though
a mere unproved assertion ; but where Mr. Pinkney Avas
known, it will be read with a smile; for he was afraid, phy-
sically or intellectually, of no man. To use his own expres-
sion to Lord Wellesley, which an Englishman should be the
last to forget, he neither sought nor shunned discussions, of
wliich the tendency is merely to irritate. In the discussion
on the Mary he had met with nothing to excite his fears, for
Story represents him as a victor; and in the Nereide,
although he failed to carry conviction to the court, he carried
one of the brightest lights of that court with him, and based
his argument upon principles, that were almost simultane-
ously sanctioned by the highest judicial wisdom of England,
and delivered a speech which, even in its present mutilated
form, will ever rank among the finest specimens of forensic
eloquence and power.
Since writing the above, my attention was .drawn to a
passage in the life of the late Jeremiah Smith, a distinguished
judge of New Hampshire. It is in these words : " Judge
Spencer related to me the anecdote of Mr. Pinkney's attack
on Emmet in the Supreme Court of the United States.
They were on opposite sides in an important cause, and one
which Mr. Pinkney had much at heart, and was desirous of
winning by fair or unfair means. In the course of the argu-
ment, he travelled out of the cause to make observations
personal and extremely offensive on Mr. Emmet, with a view
probably of irritating and weakening his reply. When the
argument was through, Mr. Emmet said perhaps he ought
not to notice the remarks of the opposite counsel. Then fol-
lows pretty much the above version, save these words: " He
would only say that he had been informed that the learned
gentleman had filled the highest ofiice his country could be-
104 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
stow at tlie court of St. James. He was sure he had never
learned his hreeding in that school. The court, the bar, and
audience were delighted."
This, it will be remembered, was not published until after
Mr. Pinkney's death. In the first place, there is a gratuitous
and un2)roved charge, that Mr. Pinkney was bent upon gain-
ing the cause of the Mary by fair or unfair means — a charge
made by a warm personal friend of Mr, Emmet without one
tittle of evidence, and as I shall presently show, in the face
of evidence to the contrary, and in violation of the facts in
the case. In the second place, there is the imputation of a
low and vulgar motive, at which every right-minded man re-
coils, upon hare probability, " with a view j^ro&aiZ?/ of irritat-
ing and weakening the reply." The animus of this anecdote
is its own best and surest condemnation. The charge of
unfairness, and the imputation of such a motive upon mere
probability, when liought against one whom Justice Story
represents as of the most peerless character at the bar, are
strange deeds in one, whose office it was to judge righteous
judgment and base assertions, toucliing the illustrious dead,
upon solid and substantial facts. The motive attributed to
Mr. Pinkney is not only untrue, but impossible to be true.
Mr. Emmet's argument was concluded, and could not there-
fore be weakened by irritation. Mr. Wheaton, who was pre-
sent, gives us the true motive ; and Justice Story conclusively
proves, tliat there was no necessity for a resort to any thing
like trick, if indeed Mr. Pinkney were capable of it, as he
won by argument an easy victory. It is strange that Judge
Story tells us nothing of the pleasure with which he listened
to language far too coarse to have ever greeted the ear of such
a tribunal as the Supreme Court of the Union.
I am not to defend Mr. Pinkney in what he, upon re-
flection, thought J) roper to acknowledge was not wholly de-
fensible ; and for which he ofiered a full and gratuitous pubhc
atonement. But when reports, extremely prejudicial to the
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 105
character of another, are circulated after his death, and ac-
companied by gross abuse ; it is surely within the province
of a biographer to sift the assertion, and, as far as the
evidence will admit, disabuse the public mind, and set the
matter right. A breath may tarnish the mirror of a peerless
character, if suffered to remain upon it — and no one has a
right to complain, if others are wounded in the mere sheer
justice of rubbing it off.
The name of Thomas A. Emmet recalls many thrilling
reminiscences. The misfortunes of his early hfe, which
was overhung with clouds, imparted a melancholy inter-
est to his subsequent illustrious career. A man of rare
eloqiience and most commanding abihties, he lived to shed
an additional lustre upon old Ireland ; for although his soft
and persuasive oratory, and the breathings of his pure and
enhghtened patriotism were hushed on the banks of Killar-
ney, and he was compelled to fly the Ireland he loved, and
seek and find a shelter beneath the outspread wings of the
American eagle ; he enjoyed the enviable pleasure of know-
ing that the echoes of his fame became familiar sounds in
every Irish homestead. Casting his eye over the names of
her illustrious sons, her Goldsmiths, Burkes, Sheridans,
Grattans, Currans, and his own most gifted brother (the
man whose epitaph will yet be written); he could, with
something of the exultation of patriotic pride, console him-
self with the belief that he was not unmindful of their glory.
If in the excitement of debate, there was a momentary jar
between Ireland's favored son and Maryland's most admired,
it was a jar in wliich neither was wholly blameless, and each
triumphed by sacrificing obstinate self-pride in a cordial and
mutual recognition and acknowledgment of all that was
truly great in the other. I leave to malevolence on either
side the waters, the gratification of parading forth infirmities
that are common to us all, and overlooking virtues that but
few possess ; while the more pleasing and grateful task is
106 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
left me, of showing how the incidental misunderstanding be-
tween them was adjusted without dishonor to either.
Mr. Pinkney possessed an eminently legal mind ; quick,
keen, discriminating, incredibly patient in investigation, and
endowed with extraordinary powers of analysis. He studied
Law as a science, and mastered it in all its departments.
The whole domain of the common law was as familiar to his
mind and thought, as the soil of his birth ; Avhile the great
principles of international law, and the not less imposing
principles of our own august constitution, were thoroughly
explored and comprehended by him. He was accustomed to
refresh himself at the well springs, and drew his legal know-
ledge from the great original sources, the masters whose ex-
positions are decisions. Nothing of importance escaped his
notice. Thoroughness and comprehensiveness combined to
make him singularly learned in the Law. He never engaged
in a cause without looking carefully and calmly into its
merits, and sifting them through all their intricacies, and
adjusting with the utmost precision the law to the facts.
Once in the cause, he was perfect master of the ground. No
error committed by those with whom he was called to grap-
ple, escaj)ed his eager and eagle-eyed observation. Cool and
cautious, he surveyed the whole field, and discovered at a
glance where were the weak and where were the strong points
of the assault and the defence. His own line of argument was
most skilfully laid, and his authorities marslialled with con-
summate judgment. Story says he never pressed weak points
upon the court, and therein he showed his good sterling com-
mon sense and high regard for professional propriety. He ex-
pended his whole strength upon the really strong points in the
case, and warred with the weapons of a giant. Investigation,
deep, searching, laborious investigation, preceded and accom-
panied all his discussions before the court. His habit of careful
and diligent preparation (from which he never departed, and
which in reality constituted one of the marvels of his life),
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 107
gave rise to the idea that his mind was slow in its operation, and
that his speeches were written out before they were delivered,
and that he was deficient in what are called the powers of ex-
temporaneous debate — an idea the farthest possible removed
from the fact. Those who were accustomed to listen to his
legal arguments, most elaborately prepared, were not un-
frequently astonished at his prompt responses, when consult-
ed as an amicus curice, upon points suddenly sprung upon
the court, which resembled the gushings forth from an over-
flowing fountain, and were not more characterized by lofty
eloquence, than wonderful precision and exactness. He who
never presumed to present himself before a court, but after
the most patient and profound examination of the case, in
all its bearings, could, when the occasion called for it, pour
forth his accurate and methodized legal learning with a force
and precision truly wonderful. Those who were privileged
to listen to his arguments continued hour after hour, have
testified to the fact, that the scintillations of his genius,
emitted in the heat and excitement of debate, whether before
the court or the Senate, possessed a beauty and a brilliancy
that were never afterwards gathered up. So far from being
carefully written out beforehand, they could not have been
written at all. They were, to use the poetic language of
another, hke dew-drops that hang on the petals of flowers,
which cannot be gathered. Mr. Pinkney possessed all the
peculiar qualities of a powerful extemporaneous debater, viz.,
unlimited command of language, inexhaustible fund of know-
ledge, a powerful and retentive memory, and admirable self-
possession. But he valued his reputation too highly; he
too much respected the court and the audience, to go forth
to the discussion without the last finish of the most exact
and minute investigation. The writer of this memoir has
heard several anecdotes of an authentic character, illustra-
tive of his wonderful quickness of comprehension ; — one of
which he begs permission to mention, as it came to him
108 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
direct. It does honor to another of the distinguished sons of
Maryland, who was liimself a most eloquent and powerful
advocate. Mr. "■•'" * "••'•■ had a case to argue, and Mr. Pinkney
was employed as associate counsel in the upper court. Dur-
ing the consultation, in giving a history of the cause, one
point was mentioned as of secondary importance. As soon
as Mr. * * * concluded, Mr. Pinkney said, " Do you take
the jioints you prefer, and I will see what I can do with the
one you reject." This excited curiosity, and when the argu-
ment of Mr. Pinkney opened, his professional colleague re-
mained to see what could be made of it ; and very soon dis-
covered that it was the very gist of the cause.
And yet, as I have shown, liis quickness of comprehen-
sion never betrayed him into indolence. His perfect com-
mand of the most appropriate, beautiful, and forcible diction,
never sur^jriscd him into carelessness of preparation. His
intimate familiarity with the legal lore of the past, and the
enlightened decisions of the present, never tempted him
into a confident i)resumption of authorities. His quickness
of perception, compass of information, and brilliancy of
genius, all disciplined by the severest and most constantly
sustained study, gave him the pre-eminence he maintained
at the bar, and made him the wonderful legal logician the
North American Keview pronounced him to be.
Mr. Pinkney entertained the most exalted idea of pro-
fessional honor. There is a trifling circumstance mentioned
in a letter, addressed by him to Mr. Ridgely of Maryland,
now in my possession, which, as it sets forth this trait of
character in a very striking light, I beg leave to copy :
" October 22, 1821,
" SiK : — Since the writing of my letter of the 20th, in
answer to yours of the 16th, Mr. Purviance and Mr. Wil-
liams have, in your name and behalf, offered me a compen-
sation (a check of one thousand dollars), in consequence of
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 109
my known determination to be neutral on yom' demand in
the case of tlie Union Bank against you. But I coukl not,
consistently with my notions of what I owe to my own cha-
racter and the honor of the Bar, accept your fee, and there-
fore I refused it (as doubtless they have informed you), the
moment it was tendered to me.
" I am the general counsel of the Union Bank, and had,
moreover, undertaken for it this cause in particular, having
no idea that after the return of your retainer, with your
own previous assent, there was, or could be any objection to
my doing so ; or that I was expected, without any recom-
pense, to decline the duties of my profession altogether in
your cause, and in every other that should involve the
same questions ; and if, from considerations of delicacy, I
retire from the fulfilment of my engagement with the Union
Bank, I will not consent to be paid for it in any shape or
manner by their opponent, or by any body else. My conduct
on this occasion would cease to be worthy of the approbation
of my brethren and the public if I suffered my neutrality to
be purchased, or to appear to be purchased, or in any way
to be compensated to the prejudice of those who have hon-
'ored me with their confidence, and who, with their accus-
tomed liberality, will, I am sure, excuse me for abandoning
their cause upon disinterested motives under the circum-
stances in which I am unexpectedly placed.
" Your obedient servant,
"William Pinkney."
This letter speaks volumes. It exhibits a refinement of
delicacy, and a nice sense of honor and propriety, that must
receive universal commendation. It is the more beautiful,
because it was a deed done in secret, and now only meets
the public eye through the kind consideration of those who
survive him, thirty years and more after he has passed from
the sight of men.
110 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
Four years after Mr. Pinkney's death, William Wirt
thus wrote of him : " If he shall have a biographer of ge-
nius, he will, by preserving the real echoes of his fame, do
more for his immortality than Pinloiey could have done for
himself" — Vol. II, page 197. Those echoes of his fame (the
oracular decisions of a Marshall, a Story, and a Wheaton),
can never die away ; and, as long as they live, Pinkney's
name will live with them. But still we must ever regret
(Mr. Wirt's judgment to the contrary notwithstanding),
that his speeches could not have been preserved as they
were delivered ; since Wheaton and Story, both accom-
phshed scholars and fastidious judges of style and matter,
have told us that they lost in every effort to report them.
May we not justly say of him, — " Qui consulta patrum,
qui leges juraque servat ? "
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. Ill
WIRT AND PINKNEY.
Justice to the character and memory of Mr. Pinkney makes
it my duty to devote a few pages to the consideration of a
portion of the memoir of Mr, Wirt, written by the Hon. J.
P. Kennedy, a gentleman of literary distinction, well known
to the American people. Holding Mr. Wirt's reputation,
as a profound lawyer and brilliant orator, in very high es-
teem, and recognizing in him a gentleman of varied accom-
plishments, an ornament of the State of his birth and the
country at large, I cannot but regret that his biographer
has forced upon me this necessity. Fault-finding is always
irksome and distasteful, but especially so where there is
much to commend, as both well and wisely written ; and,
if it were not for the fact that another distinguished name
in Maryland might sufi'er, I should pass it by in silence.
I do not animadvert upon this work merely because of
the free expression of Mr. Kennedy's own opinion respecting
the talents and acquirements of Mr. Pinkney ; or the inser-
tion of the still freer criticisms of the illustrious subject of
his biography. They both had a right to form their esti-
mate of Mr. Pinkney, and then publish it to the world.
True it is, as I think I shall be able to show conclusively,
the exercise of that right was singularly unfortunate ; as
the tone and temper of the criticisms will be found, uj)on
examination, to reflect but little credit upon either the
judgment or liberality of their authors. They mar the
work, and are a spot on the disk of one of Maryland's bright
orbs. The insertion of those criticisms was exceedingly in-
112 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
discreet. But indiscretion is no breach of the biographer's
privilege ; nor is it all of which I feel myself entitled to
complain on the part of Mr. Kennedy in this portion of his
biography. He has thought proper to publish to the world
letters, in which allusion is made to conversations that pur-
port to have passed between Mr. Pinkney and Mr. Wirt
alone (detrimental to the reputation of the former), upon
Mr. Wirt's sole authority, long after the death of Mr. Pink-
ney, and at a time when it is impossible to offer either ex-
planation or a denial of their correctness. He has done
more. He has woven a portion of those letters (the most
offensive) into the very typograj)hy of the text, and thus
given them his most solemn and deliberate endorsement.
What man would be willing to have his occasional re-
marks (they might have been playfully made) thirty years
after his decease, when he is totally incapable of defending
hhnself, chronicled to the world by his own personal rival ?
Who would be wilHng to be thus personally judged .^ With-
out intentional misrepresentation (which I would be the
last to imi)ute to Mr. Wirt), we all know how easily a thing
may be changed by a change in the tone and look, and how
easily our own peculiar temperament at the time may give
a coloring and bias to things in themselves perfectly trivial
and unimportant. Trifles are not unfrequently magnified
into some grave oifence against the rules of good taste and
high-toned bearing by a morbid and diseased sensitiveness,
in moments of temporary excitement, when the power of a
rival is felt. Impressions made at such a time, especially
where we ourselves are the party directly concerned, are not
to be trusted. If there be any principle of justice or pro-
priety clearly established, it is this : that all repetition of
conversations which occur in the privacy of personal inter-
course, reflecting in the slightest degree on another, be pub-
lished in his lifetime, or else be consigned to the tomb of
oblivion. In the publication of those letters of Mr. Wirt
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 113
wliich contain a mere intellectual critique on Mr. Pinkney,
Mr. Kennedy has been singularly unfortunate ; while in the
publication of those which are morally condemnatory, he
has been unjust. The one is a fair subject of fiiendly criti-
cism in return ; the other, a clear ground of impeachment.
I have said, that a careful inspection of Mr. AVu't's criti-
cisms of Pinkney, will not enhance his discrimination as a
judge, nor his magnanimity as a rival. Let me test the
soundness of this assertion. And be it remembered that the
biographer has opened this page of Mr. Wu't's life, and must
therefore bear the consequences of its analysis. On page
402 of Vol. I. in a letter to Mr. Francis W. Gilmer, dated
April 1st., 1816, we have a scathing dissection of Mr. Pink-
ne/s mental calibre.
" Teach these boys, — as Pinkney said he would do, — ' a
new style of speaking.' But let it be a better one than
his ; I mean his solemn style, to which, in Irish phrase, I give
the back of my hand. If that be a good style, then all the
models, both ancient and modem, wliich we have been ac-
customed to contemplate as truly great, — such as Crassus,
Anthony, Cicero, the prolocutors of the Dialogue ' De causis
corruptee eloquentia3,' Chatham, Henry, and others, — not
forgetting ' Paul Jones and old Charon,' — are aU pretenders.
I know that this is not your opinion. But I was near him
five or six weeks, and watched him narrowly. He has noth-
ing of the rapid and unerring analysis of Marshall, — but he
has in lieu of it, a dogmatizing absoluteness of manner which
passes with the million, — which, by-the-by, includes many
more than we should at first suspect, — ^for an evidence of
power ; and he has acquired with those around him a sort of
papal infallibility. That manner is a piece of acting ; it is
artificial, as you may see by the wandering of his eye, and is
as far removed from the composed confidence of enhghtened
certainty, as it is from natural modesty. Socrates confessed
that all the knowledge he had been able to acquire seemed
8
114 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
only to convince him that he knew nothing. This frankness
is one of the most characteristic traits of a great mind. Pink-
ney would make you believe that he knows every thing.
" — At the bar he is despotic, and cares as little for his
colleagues or adversaries as if they were men of wood. He
has certainly much the advantage of any of them in forensic
show. Give him time — and he requires not much — and he
will deliver a speech which any man might be proud to claim.
You will have good materials, very well put together, and
clothed in a costume as magnificent as that of Louis XIV. ;
but you will have a vast quantity of false fire, besides a ve-
hemence of intonation, for which you see nothing to account
in the character of the thought. His arguments, when I
heard him, were such as would have occurred to any good
mind of the profession. It was his mode of introducing,
dressing and incorporating them, which constituted their
chief value — ' matcriem superabit opus. ' "
This was not a hastily formed opinion. It was the result
of mature reflection and close personal obsen^ation. Consist-
ency may be said to be the very jewel of criticism. Not
that I would intimate that our views may not be altered or
modified by time and circumstances, without a forfeiture of
our title to respect and confidence. But the criticism of to-
day must be perfectly consistent Avith itself, to make it in
any degree valuable. Where is the consistency of this crit-
icism ? " Dogmatizing absoluteness of manner" not power;
"forensic show" is all that in the first part of this letter he is
willing to concede to Mr, Pinkney, after five or six weeks' close
and narrow watching. And yet, upon short notice he will
deliver a speech which any man would be proud to claim ;
and still after all, the arguments he used, when Mr. Wirt
heard him, were only such as would have occurred to any
good mind of the profession, with a vast deal of false fire.
Such is the character of the first criticism that Wirt passed
upon Pinkney ; and Mr, Kennedy has deemed it wise to hand
LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 115
it down to the generation following. How any man, who
has in lieu of unerring and rapid analj'sis, a dogmatizing ab-
soluteness of manner, which is not power, but passes with
the weak-minded million for an evidence of power, should be
able, upon short preparation, to deliver a speech which any
man would be proud to claim ; — and yet only stumble upon
such arguments as would occur to any good mind of the pro-
fession, characterized with a vast deal of false fire, is a re-
finement of distinction, that I candidly avow I cannot pene-
trate. This criticism destroys itself It was, as I have
shown, not hastUy formed, and cannot therefore plead negli-
gence or haste in its extenuation ; and although essentially
modified in after years, the feeling that dictated it will serve
as a key to help me to discover the true source of Mr. Wirt's
strictures upon his rival. In a letter to Judge Carr, dated
April 7th, 1816, he thus writes (Vol. I. p. 405) :
" In this hopeless situation I went to court, to try the
tug of war with the renowned Pinkney. When I thought
of my situation, — of the theatre on which I was now to ap-
pear for the first time, — the expectation which I was told
was excited, and saw the assembled multitude of ladies and
gentlemen from every quarter of the Union, you may guess
my feelings. Had I been prepared, how should I have gloried
in that theatre, that concourse, and that adversary ! As it
was, my dear wife and children, and your features, look, and
sympathetic voice and friendly inquietude, came over me
like evil sj^irits. To be sure, these considerations gave me a
sort of desperate, ferocious, bandit -like resolution ; but what
is mere hrute resolution with a totally denuded intellect ? I
gave, indeed, some hits which produced a visible and ani-
mating efiect ; but my courage sank, and I suppose my man-
ner fell under the conscious imbecility of my argument. I
was comforted, however, by finding that Pinkney mended the
matter very httle, if at all.
" Had the cause been to argue over again on the next
116 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
day, I could have shivered him ; for his discussion revived
all my forgotten topics, and, as I lay in my bed on the fol-
lowing morning, arguments poured themselves out before me
as from a cornucopia. I should have wept at the considera-
tion of what I had lost, if I had not prevented it by leaping
out of bed, and beginning to sing and dance like a maniac."
It is a curious fact, that this letter was penned but six
days after the one just commented on. It is not a little sur-
prising that dogmatizing absoluteness of manner and foren-
sic show should have produced such a state of feeling at the
prospect of actual collision. Unfortunately for Mr. Wirt,
but most fortunately for his antagonist, the bed, not the forum,
was the scene of this hopeless rout ; and Wu't himself, the
graphic narrator of the shivering effects that would have
followed the renewal of the contest. It was a wonderful
transition from the imbecile argument to the teeming cornu-
copia; and most fortunate for Pinkney was it, that the
bed, being a non-conductor, saved him from the shivering
bolt of legal eloquence and logic, before it laid him low in
the dust of the dishonored forum. In a letter to Mrs. Wirt,
dated April 7th, 1821 (Vol. II. p. 119), Mr. Wirt thus
wrote :
" This is the fourteenth day since this argument was
opened. Pinkney, before he began, promised to speak only
two hours and a half He has now spoken two days, and is,
at this moment, at it again for the third day. You wiU be
gratified to hear, that although there are four counsel on the
same side with me, and the veteran General Harper, —
hitherto the only Maryland rival of Pinkney, — among them,
yet here the Attorney-General is regarded as his cliief an-
tagonist, and the comparison made by the court, the bar and
the bystanders, far from beifig to my prejudice."
AU. this may have been so in point of fact (but there are
those aUve who have heard other testimony from the court,
to say nothing of the bar); but did it not occur to Mr.
LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 117
Kennedy, that other less interested witnesses would more
gracefully and properly have attested the fact, and that the
wise words of Solomon are still, as they ever have been, the
safest and best to follow? Wirt may have eclipsed the
veteran Harper, a man as great as he was learned, and as
lofty in spirit as he was ambitious to excel. He may have
eclipsed Pinkney in this cause. But the learned biographer
will pity, if he does not excuse our incredulity, until he has
explained to us how the opinion of the court, the bar and the
bystanders, was gauged. Wirt doubtless thought as he
wrote, and his friends may have told him so ; but friends
are not always impartial, neither are they infallible. Our
own opinions under such circumstances are surely as little to
be trusted. Mr. Kennedy seems to have had a sort of pre-
sentiment, that the insertion of such a letter might be open
to criticism ; and bespeaks for it exemption, on the score of
the pecuHar circumstances under which it was written. He
adds, " Trifles such as these, which on other occasions might
be liable to disparaging comment, acquire value in a bio-
graj^hical sketch, as exponents of characters. They are to
be regarded as illustrative anecdotes, which often serve to
cast a better light upon personal qualities or the features of
the mind, than more earnest and acute dissertation. They
are chiefly valuable in the present case, for the evidence they
furnish us of that eager, sensitive, and stimulating desire in
the breast of Wirt, to contend with and excel, if possible,
the most renowned and skilful competitors in the theatre of
his own art."— Vol. II. p. 119.
These trifles consist, it will be borne in mind, of three
letters (one of which alone I have commented on), April 2d,
5th, and 7th ; in two of which Mr. Pinkney is held up to
posterity in any thing but an amiable light, and in the 3d
exhibited as comparing unfavorably with Wirt in the estima-
tion of the court, bar, and bystanders. If they be, as Mr Ken-
nedy affirms, exponents of character, I am greatly in error
118 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
if the friends of Mr. Wirt do not join me in the expression
of opinion, that they have been most unfortunately inserted
into his biography. Would any one, who takes time for
reflection, wish to wound the feelings of the friends of Mr.
Pinkney, who survive him, (at a time too, when it is impos-
sible for them to open the secrets of the past for his justifi-
cation,) for the sake of inserting mere trijles and retaining
the echo of a trumpet blast of victory sounded by Mr. Wirt's
own lips ? As private letters, restricted to the private circles,
I should have never ventured to criticise them. But Mr.
Kennedy has made them public and endeavored to defend
them as ''exponents of character," although two of them
bear unkindly upon the memory of one not living at the time
of their publication ; and the other is a self-appropriated
claim to victory. In another letter to Judge Can*, May 14th,
1821 (Vol. II. p. 121), I read :
" Why, Sir, have not I been to Bel Air, in the midst of
it all, and bearded that ' * * * * * * magician Grlen-
dower,' without suffering the thousandth part that the earth
did, at the birth of the Welslmian ; nay, without suffering
by the struggle or in the comparison ?"
This reference to Glendower, the Welslmian, seems to
have been particularly pleasing to Mr. Wirt, as he introduces
it on more than one occasion, when speaking of Mr. Pinkney.
Judging from the tone and spirit of his letters, one might
fancy that Wirt like Lancaster could " illy brook the men-
tion of Glendower." I will not insinuate that the words of
the Welshman could have been adopted by Mr. Pinkney.
" Three times hath Henry Bolingbrokc made head
Against my power — thrice from the banks of Wye,
And sandy-botlorned Severn, have I sent him
Bootless home, and weather-beaten back."
But surely this much I may do. I may well express my
regret, that Wirt had not with Mortimer's magnanimity
have divided the disputed realm.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 119
" England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
By South and East is to my part assigned :
All westward, Wales, beyond the Severn shore,
And all the fertile land within that bound,
To Owen Glendower." —
It may not be that Wirt's Glendower, like Shakspeare's,
" gave the tongue a helpful ornament that was never seen
before" — but stiU comparisons are sometimes stronger and
more striking than we at first imagined.
Again in a letter to Francis W. GrLlmer, May 9th, 1822,
p. 138, Vol. II.
" Poor Pinkney ! he died opportunely for his fame. It
could not have risen higher * * * *.
" He was a great man. On a set occasion, the greatest,
I think, at our bar, I never heard Emmet nor WeUs, and,
therefore, I do not say the American bar. He was an ex-
cellent lawyer ; had very great force of mind, great compass,
nice discrimination, strong and accuiate judgment : and for
copiousness and beauty of diction was unrivalled. He is a
real loss to the bar. No man dared to grajDple with him
without the most perfect preparation and the full possession
of all liis strengtli. Thus he kept the bar on the alert and
every horse with his traces tight. It Avill be useful to re-
member him, and in every case to imagine him the adversary
with whom we have to cope. But, I assure you, I do not
enjoy more rest because that comet has set. There was a
pleasurable excitement in wrestling with him on full pre-
paration. In my two last encounters with him I was well
satisfied, and should never have been otherwise when en-
tirely ready. To draw his supremacy into question, any
where, was honor enough for ambition as moderate as mine,"
These words were penned in an hour of solemn interest,
over the closed coffin and grave of his contemporar}- — and
yet even here we have the rising of the same restless influ-
ence, that the name and fame of Pinkney always produced
120 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
on Wirt. Pinkney did die, in one sense, opportunely for his
fame. He died in the full flush of honor, with his face front-
ing duty; not ingloriously reposing upon his laurels, but in
the act of making a desperate struggle for still higher fame
and vaster renown. But he had not reached the acme of
either his aspirations or his hopes. Had he lived, and his
powers continued unimjjaired by disease, his countrymen
would have heard of him yet again on the floor of the Senate,
and the forum.
Mr. Wirt in this letter concedes, it is true, " that he was
a great man ; on a set occasion the greatest at the Mary-
land bar. He had not heard Emmet or Wells, and therefore
he did not say the American bar. " He had heard Web-
ster and Tazewell. Tliis is high praise, and although not
uttered until the orb that seemed to culminate so painfully
on Mr. Wirt's vision had set, still I was disposed to say
that it was praise gracefully spoken, when my eye rested
upon the following passage: " In my two last encounters
with him I was well satisfied, and should never have been
otherwise, when entirely ready." No mention is made of
him but in self-comparison. The fame of Pinkney (if these
letters be a true index of the feelings of their author) was
Wirt's disturbing ghost. Even when the great Lawyer and
orator lay in the shroud, and criticism herself stood disarmed
by his bier, that ghost could not be laid. Long after
death had claimed its victim, it continued to haunt the
memory and awaken unpleasant associations. In a letter to
Judge Carr, February 9th, 1824 (Vol. II. p. 179), he thus
wrote:
" There was Pinkney, who was certainly a great advocate.
He was never heard to complain of a failure. He has made
some speeches which would have half killed me. On a great
occasion in Annapolis I heard liim speak for three days. Of
the first day, two or three hours were in his best manner;
the rest of that day, and the whole of the following two,
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 121
were filled up with interminable prolixity of petty commen-
tary upon one or two hundred cases. The court, bar and
every one were tired to death. He went home and told —
that he had made the greatest speech he had ever made in
his Hfe."
From this judgment thus sweepingly made, with a sort
of oracular infaUibility, if the occasion had been mentioned,
I apprehend an appeal might be safely made to those who
listened for three days to Mr. Pinkney. For, strange to say,
he never spoke in Annapolis without admiring audiences,
and the judges were always prompt to record their highest
appreciation of his power. In a letter to Francis W. Gil-
mer, April 2d, 1825, he writes further :
" His fame had a magnitude by refraction, which would
have been impaired by the publication of his speeches."
The letters, to which I take exception on the score of
propriety, because they are calculated to leave on the mind
of the reader the idea that Pinkney was disgustingly over-
bearing and jealous, while Wirt, his contemporary, was the
very impersonation of modesty and retirement, are to be
found on pages 80 Vol. II; 119, do. ; 176, do. I again re-
peat, that I would most gladly have omitted this whole crit-
icism on the work of Mr. Kennedy, if justice to the memory
of WiUiam Pinkney would have allowed. But that was not
possible. Thirty years had passed, since Mr. Pinkney was
laid in the grave, when, needlessly and without benefit to the
character of Wirt, his biographer gives publicity, not merely
to Wirt's depreciation of his rival, but to grave reflections
on his character. It will not do to say that these criticisms
(both severe in their tone and unkind) were subsequently
modified and changed. They were never so modified, as not
to- be tinctured by the most transparent self-exaltation ; and
in their more objectionable features they were not modified
at all. The very name of Wirt gives importance to his opin-
ions and statements ; and the superadded name of Kennedy
122 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
clothes them with additional authority. And surely, as the
biographer has not hesitated to give all the perpetuity he
can to the strictures on Mr. Pinkney and mere ex parte rep-
etitions of conversations — no friend of Mr. Pinkney, in an
attempt to write his life and vindicate his character, can be
blamed for subjecting the criticism to the touchstone of a
calm and impartial review, and entering a protest against
those ex parte statements.
We must not be misunderstood. Mr. Kennedy and Mr.
Wirt had a right to speak of Mr. Pinkney as they thought
fit. I concede that right to the fullest extent. They were
at liberty to dissect his mental calibre at pleasure. I com-
plain not of the exercise of that right. But, having exer-
cised it, and thereby submitted their own criticism to the
world, they become in turn fair subjects of critical investi-
gation, and no one has a right to complain if the result prove
unsatisfactory or painful.
But I deny that Mr. Kennedy had a right to publish
one-sided statements, that were never published in the life-
time of the person assailed.
Nil de moHuis nisi honum, is a most admirable senti-
ment. The world may deny our claim to greatness or se-
verely dissect our intellectual powers, if it please. But no
man has a right to touch the character, unless upon charges
made in the lifetime, and confronted with the accused, or on
statements that have been submitted to the touchstone of
full and fair investigation. A deeper wrong could not weU
have been inflicted on the memory of the lamented Wirt,
than this indiscreet and improper publication. I can only
once more regret, that it did not occur to the discriminating
judgment of the biographer, that the supremacy of either
of those illustrious men could never be satisfactorily settled
by the assertions of either ; and that he did not leave those
letters in the privacy they were permitted to enjoy while
Pinkney lived. They exliibit Mr. Wirt's character, which
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 123
was in many respects worthy of the highest admiration, in a
most unenviable light ; and evince a weakness of jealousy
upon which it is truly painful to animadvert.
N. B. — Some of the points in this portion of my memoir
were introduced into an article I forwarded to the Literary
World, which was published some time ago.
124 LITE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
PINKNEY, A STATESMAN.
Mr. Pinkney's character in this aspect of it is not generally
understood, and is not therefore properly appreciated. Be-
fore I enter upon a review of his conduct in the different
embassages he filled, I propose to inquire what it was, which
entitled him to the appellation of a statesman ; in what
school he was trained ; and what were the mental and moral
elements which combined to qualify him for the difficult and
delicate functions that are always involved in the manage-
ment and control of pubhc aflau's. He was a true-hearted
American patriot, a sincere and ardent lover of his country,
deeply versed in the grand principles of our glorious consti-
tution, and a thorough master of every portion of its intri-
cate and beautiful mechanism. He had studied the system
in the writings of its august founders. Accustomed from
infancy to the war-cry of the Kevolution, his youtliful imagi-
nation was fii'cd with the thrilling associations of that giant
struggle for freedom. He grew up in the meridian blaze of
the period of '76. His profound knowledge of constitutional
law enabled him, at a glance, to see how far any given meas-
ure comported with the dignity and true glory of the coun-
try, or put in jeopardy its substantial prosperity and success.
He had the nicest conception of the powers of the General
Government, and the separate jurisdiction and sovereignty of
the States, and never for a moment lost sight of the boundary
that divided the one from the other. No man was a truer,
firmer, faster friend of the rights of the States, or viewed
with a more jealous eye the least infringement of their clear
constitutional prerogatives ; and yet no man possessed a more
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 125
admirable nationality of soul. He was out and out an
American in all his views and principles. His spirit was as
large as his country, and wherever the stars and stripes
floated, through the whole extent of the national domain, he
could exultingly say, with a full consciousness of the glory
of the sentiment, " This is my country all." He was above
the influence and dominion of sectional prejudices. Though
a Southerner by birth, his noble heart beat high with the
broadest nationality. The Union he prized as the proud
palladium of our hberties, the fruitful som'ce of all our past
mercies, and the only hope of the still more glorious future.
He saw in it the " seminal principle " of an unprecedented
national exaltation, the more than germ of the most stupen-
dous system of government the sun ever before shone upon.
The union of independent and separate States — united in all
that coidd give efficiency to the whole, while separate and
sovereign in all that was essential to the largest desirable
freedom of each — this union of equals for the purposes of
mutual defence and gloiy, enlisted the purest sympathies of
his soul, and called forth the mightiest strains of his elo-
quence. In his whole political career, he aspired to be the
friend of the States in union ; and nothing less than this
broad nationality satisfied his ideas of what a true devotion
to State rights required at his hands. He saw nothing but
advancement, unparalleled success and far-reacliing, illimita-
ble prosperity", for the States, so long as they continued in a
whole-souled fealty and devotion to the Union ; while in the
severance of that Union he saw nothing but the darkness
and blackness of despotism, the most dismal and frightful
chaos of anarchy and confusion. The following letter, writ-
ten by Mr. Clay but a short time before his death, corrobo-
rates all that I have here stated, and beautifully exj^resses
the confidence and admiration of one, who remembered to
applaud the day that witnessed Mr. Pinkney's triimiphant
v/
126 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
vindication of the constitution in the discussion of the Mis-
souri question.
"Havana, March 2,9th, 1851.
" My Dear Sir : — I request your acceptance of my
thanks for the Chart and History of Hayti, which you have
done me the favor to present to me. They relate to an
island, distinguished by great vicissitudes of prosperity and
adversity, and I shall take much pleasure in tracing them.
It is greatly to be regretted that an island so full of rich
resources could not be made more conducive to the supply
of the commerce and the consumption of our species.
" I beg your acceptance also of my acknowledgments
for your friendly consideration of me, and for your kind es-
timate (quite too high and flattering) of my public services.
On the recent j)erilous occasions in our councils, it was a
matter of great gratification and encouragement to have
been perfectly assured that the navy, as well as the army,
and the great mass of the people of the United States, were
true and faithful to that Union, which is at once the bond,
the security, and the glory of all.
" Had William Pinkney been alive, your illustrious rela-
tion, his eloquent voice would have been conspicuously and
effectively heard in the defence and support of that Union.
" With my best respects for your health, happiness, and
prosperity,
" I am, respectfully,
" Your obedient servant,
" Dr. Ninian Pinkney, H. Clay."
" U. S. Navy."
It was Mr. Pinkney's constant aim to be eminently just.
He scorned the questionable expedients so often resorted to
by petty politicians. Deeming honesty the crowning orna-
ment of a diplomatist, and his country's honor the only safe
guiding star of public policy, he pursued his object with
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 127
bold independence and manly directness. Extraordinary
quickness in comiDrehending the merits of a subject — extra-
ordinary labor and patience of research in threading all its
perplexing labyrinths, and extricating it from every thing
extraneous or irrelevant — commanding and ready eloquence
in enforcing his own dehberate and well-weighed conclusions
— superiority to low and contemptible artiifice — remarkable
prudence and self-control in brushing away the " cobweb
conceits " of shallow politicians — moral courage, the bravery
of the heart, which is unappalled by difficulties and unawed
in danger, and which always dares to assume responsibility
and meet it — these all combined to make him a consummate
statesman.
I speak now of his powers in the abstract — powers which
a Washington was the first to discover, and a Jefierson,
Madison, and Monroe were as j)rompt to appreciate and
reward. If Mr. Pinkney had never been tried in the active
duties of statesmanship, we might have confidently argued
his pre-eminent fitness for the work from those well-known
attributes of his character. Having been tried, let us now
inquire how they were developed and exhibited. Was the
fruit worthy of the tree ?
It will be remembered that his first appearance abroad
was under the appointment of Washington, as commis-
sioner on the part of the United States, under the 7th
article of Jay's Treaty. The duties rendered under that
appointment are recorded in history ; and it is not necessary
to say more of them now, than that the result of his labors
was the making award by the Board on the principles con-
tended for by the American commissioners.
President Jefierson invited him to assist Mr. Monroe in
the pending negotiations with Great Britain. His accept-
ance of this appointment subjected him to severe censure ;
his motives were impugned, and his fidelity to his old polit-
ical principles was called in question. I have shown, upon
128 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the authority of Mr. Jefferson's own letter, that the ap-
pointment came to him without solicitation, direct or indi-
rect. The interests of the country seemed to call loudly
for an extraordinary embassage, and the high character of
Mr. Pinkney in England (which was the result of his former
sojourn in that country) seemed to concur, with his known
ability and prudence, in pointing him out as the very man
for the position. Mr. Pinkney did not waver in devotion to
his country's cause. In a spirit of noble self-sacrifice he
stepped forth and laid on the altar of his country his large
experience and the reputation he had already won. He was
not the man to skulk from duty in such a crisis for a mere
personal and selfish consideration, where principle and honor
were to be neither compromised nor offered up in sacrifice.
In his letter to Mr, Cooke, of Baltunore, of the 5th October,
1806, he thus eloquently and feeUngly vindicates himself
from those ungenerous imputations :
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. COOKE.
"London, 5th October, 1806.
" My Dear Sir : — I am very much indebted to you for
your truly kind letter of the 4th of August, which has just
reached me. It contains the best proof in the world of your
good opinion and regard. It speaks to me with candor,
and, at the same time that it betrays the partiality of a long-
tried friendship, guards me against the disappointment to
which a sanguine and credulous temper might expose me,
and enables me to anticipate in season the misconceptions
and calumnies which are preparing for me. This anticipa-
tion is certainly wholesome ; but it is unpleasant notwith-
standing. The language of reproach is new to me, and I
fear I shall not learn to bear it with a good grace from a
country which I have ardently loved and faithfully served
with the best years of my life. The consciousness tliat I do
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 129
not, and cancot deserve it, consoles me in one view, while it
mortifies me in another. I am proud of the imqiialified con-
viction of my heart and understanding, that I am incapable
of any thing that an honest man should blush to avow ; but
it gives me pain to find that no purity of motive or integrity
of conduct can afibrd shelter in this world from the vilest
and most disgusting imputations. Our country is young,
and ought to be generous and charitable, and I believe that
the great bulk of our people are so. But I do not need to
have my actions charitably interpreted. I ask only a just
construction of them ; I care not how rigorous, if it be not
mahgnant. It seemed natural to suppose, that putting
former character out of the question, the circumstances under
which I last came abroad would at least secure me from the
susjoicion of selfish views and time-serving policy; and I am,
of course, surprised that a man can be found to infer, from
my accejitance of the arduous trust in which I am now en-
gaged, ' that I have deserted my principles and my friends,
and pledged myself to support the party in power and their
measures to every extent ?' What principles, in God's name,
and what friends have I deserted ? The plain matter of
fact is thus : A great national crisis occurs, which requires,
or is supposed to require, an extraordinary foreign mission.
The President, whom I may be said to know only by char-
acter, offers this important charge to me. I give up my
profession. I surrender all my hopes of future fortune. I
forego a second time, and /or ever, the expectation of placing
my numerous and helpless family in a state of independence,
and accept this anxious trust, which, instead of promising
pecuniary emolument, is likely to bring with it a heavy
pecuniary loss, and which, so far from promising to do me
honor, puts in hazard the stock of reputation I have before
acquired. Now what abandonment of principle is there in
all this ? I am wiUing to admit that I may have acted im-
providently, as regards myself and my children, and that I
130 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
may have overrated my capacity, and undertaken a task to
which I am not competent. But I am quite sure that I
have not deviated from the path of honor in which, with an
approving conscience, I have walked from my boyish days.
My appointment is known to have been as completely un-
solicited as ever appointment was from the beginning of the
world. It came to me wholly unsought. It is to the credit
of the government that it did so. It came to me unclogged
by any terms or conditions. They who talk of a pJedge on
my part, as the consideration of it, know that they insinuate
a base and detestable falsehood. No such pledge, no pledge
of any kind, was ever proposed to me. I was treated with
honor, and delicacy, and confidence ; and I have a firm re-
liance that I shall continue to be so treated. An attempt
to treat me otherwise would drive me in a moment from
office, as it would have prevented me from accepting it. As
to this pledge, the slander is too gross to be believed. I
have an intimate persuasion, founded upon a consciousness
which I cannot mistake, of integrity without blemish, that
no man would undertake to suggest to me so vile and infa-
mous a compact as the price of public station. The accept-
ance of my appointment may, indeed, imply a pledge ; and
I am content that it shall be taken to be as large as honor
will permit. In its utmost size, whatever that may be, I
will faithfully redeem it, and should be ashamed to have it
supposed that I could shrink from a duty so pressing and
obvious. The foolish, and often hypocritical cant about
apostacy and desertion of principles, shall not frighten me
from the steady and manly course to which this duty directs
me. I have never professed any principles with which my
present situation, connected as it unquestionably is with the
great interests of my country, is in the slightest degree in-
consistent. I find nothing in the objects of it, in the means
by which I am instructed to accomplish those objects, or in
the measures of the government preparatory to the mission.
LIFE OF WILLI Air PINKNEY. 131
which I do not entirely approve, and have not uniformly ap-
proved.
"As to the friends I have deserted, who are they? I
accepted my appointment, as far as I could ascertain, with
the entire concurrence of my friends of both parties ; and I
rejoice that I have friends of all parties. It was that flat-
tering concurrence which encouraged me to hope that the
anxiety inseparable from my undertaking would not be ag-
gravated by unjust and unfeeling prejudices, and that I
should have no difficulties to struggle with, but such as I
should find here. The affection of many of my friends in-
duced them to express their fears that, as an individual, I
should sufter by the mission. But they did not conceal
their approbation of my appointment, and did not intimate
that any but prudential considerations ought to restrain me
from accepting it. I have since been frequently consoled by
the recollection of this, the most interesting period of my
life."
It will thus appear that Mr. Pinkney embarked in this
great national mission, strong in his own integrity and with
a bosom glowing with patriotic fervor and zeal. Let us now
see what he did or attempted to do, in what spirit and with
what ability he conducted his part of the negotiation — and
in all that is here said, let it be understood, that so long as
his illustrious colleague Mr. Monroe remained, he bore a most
distinguished part. They moved in the matter like men
above the influence of petty and blinding prejudices, with
the broad feelings of American citizens in charge of Ameri-
can rjo-hts. With what care he watched the progress of
events, and with what solicitude he guarded the national
honor, and vindicated the rights of the country, may be seen
through the whole period of the negotiation ; but nowhere
more conspicuously than in the letter he addressed to Pre-
sident Madison as early as the 31st December, 1807.
" The attitude which our government is now to take,
132 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
will fix our destiny for ever ; and my trust is strong and con-
fident that both will be worthy of the high name of our
country.
" In my public letters I have ventured to intimate my
opinions as to the conduct which the crisis demands from
us. You will excuse me, if in a private letter I speak with
more freedom.
" It wiU, I sincerely hope, be the solemn conviction of
every man in America (as it is mine) that it has become im-
possible, without the entire loss of our honor, and the sacrifice
of every thing which it is our duty to protect, to submit in
the smallest degree to that extravagant system of maritime
oppression (proceeding more from jealousy of our rising
greatness than from natives actually avowed) by which Great
Britain every day exemplifies in various modes the favorite
doctrine of her infatuated advisers, that Power and Eight ful
Dominion are equivalent terms,
*'No man can deprecate war upon light and frivolous
grounds more sincerely than I should do. But if war arises
out of our resistance to this pernicious career of arrogance
and selfishness, which, wliile it threatens our best interests
with ruin, is even more insulting than it is injurious, and
more humiliating than it is destructive, can it be doubted
that our cause is a just one, or that we shall be able and
willing to maintain it as a great and gallant nation ought
to do ?
" Our government has shown a laudable solicitude, for
peace with all the world, and has acted wisely in its efibrts
to preserve it. But the time has arrived when it seems to
be certain that we must yield up all that we prize of repu-
tation, of fortune, and of power, to the naval desj)otism of
this country, or meet it with spirit and resolution ; if not
by war, at least by some act of a strong and decisive char-
acter.
" The argument against resistance to British aggression,
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 133
founded upon supposed danger from France, if Great Britain
should be greatly weakened by that resistance, proves too
much, and is otherwise false in fact and reasoning.
" It may be admitted, however, that France is a subject
of apprehension to America as well as to Europe ; but are
we on that account to suffer with patience every wrong
which Great Britain, stimulated by the jealousy of her mer-
chants, or the avarice of her Navy, or the pride of con-
scious power, may inflict upon us ? Such a state of abject
slavery to our peers, such a tame surrender of our rights, as
the price of British protection against possible and contingent
peril, would be a thousand times more degrading than if we
were now in the maturity of our years to return openly to the
dependence of our colonial infancy upon the guardianship of
the parent country. If we once listen to this base and pu-
sillanimous suggestion, we have passed under the yoke and
are no longer a nation of freemen ; we shall not only be de-
spised and trampled upon by all the world, but, what is of
infinitely more importance, we shall despise ourselves —
France will justly become our irreconcilable enemy, and
Great Britain will only be encouraged and enabled to stab
to the heart the prosperity which she envies, and the power
which she begins to dread. By a different course, that
which suits with the manly character and the great resources
of the American people, we shall show that we rely on our-
selves for protection. We shall maintain, with the gallantry
and firmness which have heretofore characterized us, our
station among the powers of the earth. We shall check,
while there is yet time, the usurpation of Great Britain,
without destroying her salutary strength."
This noble letter breathes a lofty confidence in the integ-
rity of his country's cause. It repudiates indignantly the
idea of any comj^romise of her rights, and points out and
severely rebukes the arrogance and presumption of England's
claims upon the high seas, and sounds the tocsin of war
134 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
sooner than submit to a surrender of our rights, by a timid
faltering policy, or a base compromise. Mark the date of
this letter, at the same time you analyze its tone and temper,
and you will see that none saw more clearly or resented more
eloquently the odiousness of the decrees in council than Mr.
Pinkney, or availed themselves of an earlier opportunity in
giving full and free expression to their views and feelings.
Speaking to the constitutional head of this government, he
spoke with the bold independence of an American citizen in
charge of American rights.
In this mission he was unsuccessful. Why ? Not be-
cause he had failed to exhaust both argument and appeal in
his efforts to awaken a sense of justice and true enlightened
policy in the bosom of those, whose counsels guided Eng-
land in that eventful day. Not because he had waxed neg-
ligent in making prompt and manly protest against her mon-
strous aggressions, and tardy and insulting slowness to make
amends for the wrongs perpetrated.
True it is, he was under injunction not to jeopard the
peace of the countries, by precii^itate action or the too free
expression of his own excited and wounded pride. Not less
true it is that he did restrain, with admirable self-control,
his indignation, while compelled to witness aggressions re-
peated without redress, and diplomatic finesse pushed almost
to the verge of open indignity. He did it because it was
the will of liis government it should be done, not because
the peace of the world made it desirable that endurance
should be carried to the farthest possible point.
The conduct pursued by our ministers during that criti-
cal and most difficult negotiation, beautifully contrasts with
that pursued by the English ministry and their deputed
agents. The English journalists of that era were compelled,
in the hour of calm review and cool investigation, to de-
nounce in tones of indignant rebuke the unmanly and disin-
genuous policy of a Canning and a Wellesley ; and seemed to
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 135
amuse themselves at our cost, for what they suj^posed was
the weak credulity and want of penetration exhibited by
those, who were then in charge of American rights at the
court of St. James, A dispassionate examination of the
subjoined correspondence will show that they were as correct
in the former opinion, as they were egregiously mistaken in
the latter, Mr, Pinkney before he embarked on the mission
had dissected England's policy with the skill of a master, and
exposed her raj)acious and grasping ambition and wanton
infraction of the law of nations in her aggressions on the free-
dom of the seas, with resistless eloquence and power of ar-
gument. He entered on the mission with open eyes and
judgment thoroughly informed. He needed no one to ad-
monish him or put him on his guard. In Mr. Monroe, he
found a clear-headed, enlightened, experienced American
statesman, in every respect equal to the high trust confided to
him. And in all the conferences they had with the British
negotiators did he and Mr. Monroe set forth the claims of
the United States, and repel the ^dews and pretensions of
England. In their frequent interviews with Lords Holland
and Auckland, they displayed not less ability than they did
zeal and moderation in the assertion of our national honor
and rights, and did all that human eloquence could do to se-
cure a full and satisfactory adjustment of all the points in
controversy. On 31st Dec, 1806, they concluded a treaty.
As that treaty has been the subject of much abuse, I beg
leave to insert a few passages from a letter of Mr. Monroe,
dated February 28th, 1808, written in its defence.
" The idea (says Mr, Monroe) entertained by the pub-
lic is, that the rights of the United States were abandoned
by the American commissioners in the late negotiation, and
that their seamen were left by tacit acquiescence, if not by
formal renunciation, to depend for their safety on the mercy
of the British cruisers, I have on the contrary always be-
lieved and still do believe that the ground on which that in-
136 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
terest was placed by the paper of the British commissioners,
of Nov. 8th, 1806, and the ex2)lanations which accompanied
it, was both honorable and advantageous to the United States ;
that it contained a concession in their favor on the part of
Great Britain on the great principle in contestation never be-
fore made by a formal and obligatory act of the government,
which was highly favorable to their interest ; and that it
also imposed on her the obligation to conform her practice
under it, till a more complete an-angement should be con-
cluded, to the just claims of the United States."
Again. " It is evident that the rights of the United
States were expressly to be reserved and not abandoned, as
has been most erroneously supposed ; that the negotiation
on the subject of impressment was to be postponed for a
limited time, and f n- a special object only, and to be revived
as soon as that object was accomplished ; and in the interim
that the practice of impressment was to correspond essen-
tially with the views and interests of the United States."
— State Paper, vol. 6, page 421.
The whole of this long letter is worthy of a perusal, and
less than the whole cannot well exhibit the ground upon which
the defence of that treaty is based. This treaty Mr. Jeffer-
son refused to ratify. He did not so much as consult the
Senate upon it ; but took upon himself the sole responsibility
of its rejection. In HUdreth's History of the United States,
Vol. v., p. Q^Q, &c., its wisdom, sound policy and propriety
the most triumphantly vindicated. " The British negotia-
tors declared that although the ministry could not venture to
give up by formal treaty the right of impressment on the
high seas, yet that special instructions should be given and
enforced for the observance of the greatest caution against
subjecting any American born citizen to molestation or in-
jury, and that in case of any such injury, upon representa-
tion of it, the promptest redress should be afforded. These
assurances were reduced to writing, suggesting at the same
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 137
time, that while hoth parties thus reserved these rights, this
stipulation might ansiver temporarily. * * "'•'■" Having
obtained every concession on the subject of impressment
short of a renunciation by the British government of the
claim of right to take British subjects out of American
vessels — a claim going back to an indefinite antiquity,
strongly supported by the national feeling, and thought at
the jDresent crisis of European affairs essential to the na-
tional safety — and having thus placed the United States as
to this question on ground, short indeed of what justice de-
manded and perhaps of their rights, but the best, which at
present there was the slightest prospect of obtaining ; under
these circumstances, imitating the example of Jay and of
the commission to France in 1799, Monroe and Pinkney did
not deem it consistent either with common prudence or com-
mon sense to relinquish the advantage thus secured, and along
with it other advantages in prospect, and from a too strict
adherence to instructions to leave the country, by breaking
up the negotiation, exposed to vast maritime losses, to the con-
tinuance and aggravation of present misunderstandings, and
to imminent risk of war." This is the verdict passed by
faithful and impartial history upon that important transac-
tion. And after the letter of Monroe, and the satisfactoiy
exposition of Hildreth, I feel that I can safely intrust it to
the judgment of posterity. True it is, it did leave the ques-
tion of impressment unsettled. But what became of that
question, and how does it stand at the present moment ? It
did not surrender the right. It yielded up nothing. It only
postponed to future negotiation the adjustment, securing in
the meanwhile the most important and desirable modification
of its use, in its oppressive bearing upon our interests. Mr.
Pinkney and Mr. Monroe were as deeply sensible that the
treaty did not secure all that could be desired or reasonably
or equitably asked, as Mr. Jefferson or its bitterest assailant.
They were called upon to decide between two things, neither
138 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
of which were to be desired. They would have spumed, as
indignantly as any, a dishonorable adjustment of our diffi-
culties with England. They felt the injustice of the im-
pressment as practised by her, and would never have con-
sented to a tame surrender of our earnest and decisive pro-
test against that right, as a violation of the law of nations
too flagrant to be justified by any supposed exigencies of na-
tional defence, that could be pleaded in its extenuation. They
were willing, upon the positive assurance of the British gov-
ernment previously given, that it should be used in essential
correspondence with the views of the United States, to leave
it among the questions not settled ; not because they were
disposed to submit to the practice, but solely, because they
thought the permitting it to pass by for the present prefera-
ble to war, at a time when we were so little prepared to en-
counter it. War came at last, when negotiation failed, and
it was hailed with both pride and pleasure by Mr. Pinkney,
because the national honor required it, and the patience and
forbearance of negotiation had proved inoperative to wring
from EngLmd the proper redress for wrongs j)erpetrated. It
was a war that covered our gallant little Navy with deathless
gloiy, and proved to the world that England was no longer
mistress of the seas. A new power was upon that mighty
element, capable of maintaining its flag untarnished, whose
motto was " Don't give up the ship."
What became of Mr. Jefferson's sme qua non ? without
which he refused to ratify this treaty. Was the right of
impressment abandoned or surrendered by the treaty that
actually followed the war ? It is as yet among the things
not given up. It is a right, unexercised I gi'ant, and one
that will never again be exercised, as far as our flag is con-
cerned. But the only treaty that reduced it to a mere
barren abstract claim of right was the thunder of our little
navy on the seas. Neither Mr. Monroe nor Mr. Pinkney
were fully convinced that it would be otherwise settled,
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 139
however mucli they may have hoped and wished that justice
and a sense of right would ultimately prevail in the British
councils ; and, without its settlement, neither of them would
or could have rested satisfied. They did the best they could
in the then state of public affairs, and, in no proper sense
of the word, did they forget w^hat was due to the American
flag, or the brave tars that bore it so gallantly on the seas.
They were not willing to throw away the chances of an
honorable peace by rashness or inconsideration. The post-
ponement for a while of the right of impressment, they
thought, would result in no serious injury to the United
States, after the explicit acknowledgment that, until settled,
it would be used in accordance with our views of interest.
I think, with no impeachment of Mr, Jefferson, that Pink-
ney and Monroe acted the wiser part.
It is delightful, in recalling, for the vindication of Mr.
Pinkney's character, the odious policy that was pursued by
Great Britain towards the United States prior to the war
of 1812, to reflect that these tw^o great countries are now
bound to each other by the strongest ties of interest and of
amity, which, it is to be hoped, for the sake of the world,
neither of them may be ever tempted to forget or snap
asunder. Speaking the same language, avowedly attached
to the same great principles of political freedom, eminently
commercial in their spirit and destiny, and thereby qualified
to become leaders in the diftusion of light and knowledge
the world over, they may, with exulting pride, forget that
old feuds ever existed, and henceforth live to honor and
respect each other, and work in concert for the welfare of
the nations. We have an interest and a home in the land
of Shakspeare and of Milton. We love the old cathedrals
and good old church of England. We study the decisions
of her noble and enlightened courts, and claim a copartner-
ship in her splendid literature and stupendous national
glory. And we flatter ourselves that the day has come
140 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNET.
when the mother may justly pride herself on the daughter,
and feel that we are more than the recipients of her light
and lustre. An Englishman may now look upon the land
of Washington, and hless God that the name and fame of
England are renewed in the name and fame of the United
States. The glory of the past of either will not compare
with their future, if peace prevail in their mutual councils,
and their flags wave over seas covered hy their mutual com-
merce in beauteous harmony. May their towering strength
know of no competition hut that of friendly rivaliy. May
their race of glory be henceforth and for ever in parallel
lines, whose interests and true national exaltation manifestly
lie in one and the same direction.
It becomes now my painful duty in this connection to
examine the statements of a work, which was widely circu-
lated at the time it was issued, entitled "The Memoirs of
Jefferson." Tliis work was published in 1809. Its author-
ship was never, that I know of, avowed. It contains very
severe and acrimonious animadversions upon the character
and condu£;t of Mr. Pinkney. It charges him with gross
duplicity and falsehood. The writer does not mince his
words. Destitute of the caution that is usually observed
by those who delight in detraction, he is prodigal of his
facts in proof, and deals with astounding freedom with dates,
those honest tell-tales against such as use them carelessly.
I propose to inquire into the nature of the charges made,
and the proofs adduced, reaffirming that noble sentiment
which this writer had the rashness to indorse, " that if a
history wants truth, it wants every thing that can recom-
mend it ; " a sentiment which is more beautifully expressed
by Cicero : " Historia est testis temporum, lux veritatis,
vita memoriae, magistra vittB, nuntia vetustatis." I shall
permit him to speak for himself, judge him by his own words,
and then submit his so-called statements to the touchstone
of stubborn facts. The author thus writes :
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 141
" With this view, Mr. Pinkney was sent to the Court of
St. James, armed, one hand with a falsehood, and the other
with an impudent absurdity." — Vol. II., p. 392.
Again : " On the 10th of October, Mr. Pinkney sent an
answer to Mr. Canning's letter, in which an amount of more
than twenty pages of very large sized octavo, in print, was
occupied in a vain effort to justify the negotiation from the
charge of having failed from his neglecting to make an offer
from government to rej)eal the embargo ; but in which,
when connected and compared with other parts of the cor-
respondence respecting the negotiation, he appeared mani-
festly guilty of mistakes or misrepresentations.
" On our first conference (said he to Mr. Canning) I told
you explicitly, that tlie substance of what I suggested (viz.
that the British orders being repealed, we would suspend
the embargo) teas from my government ; but the manner
of conducting and illustrating it was aU my own. I even
repeated to you the words of my instructions, as they were
upon my memory. After this, however doubtful a person
might be as to the assertion of Mr. Pinkney that he had
told Mr. Canning explicitly, that the substance of his sug-
gestion was from his government, he would have a right, at
least, to conclude, that the written authority on which Mr,
Pinkney so confidentially rehed, and the words of which he
said he had repeated to Mr. Canning, did at least contain the
words to bear liim out. When those very instructions, how-
ever, come to be inspected, they are found not to contain one
single word of that import ; but, on the contrary, dh-ections to
the contrary. For his instructions on this head, Mr. Pink-
ney, it seems, was referred by the Secretary of State (Mr,
Madison) to his (Mr. Madison's) answer to Mr. Erskine, on
the subject of the British orders in council ; and the words
there are as foUows : ' The United States are well warranted
in looking for a speedy revocation of a system which is every
day augmenting the mass of injmy for which the United
142 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
States have the best claims to redress ? And then, contin-
ues Mr. Madison to Mr. Piukney himself, ^still it is to he
understood, that while, the insidt offered in the attach on the
Chesapeake remains unexpiated, you are not to pledge or
commit your government, to consider a recall of the orders in
council as a ground on which o. removal of the existing re-
strictions on the commerce of the United States ivith Chxat
Britain may he justly expected.' Here, then, is a positive
order not to give the British government reason so much as
to expect that the embargo should be repealed, even though
the orders in council should be rescinded.
'■ Thus, Mr. Pinkney stands convicted of misrepresenta-
tion by the very instructions from which he pretended to have
repeated the words to substantiate the truth of his assertion.
No such words were in it ; but words directly the reverse ;
so that if he had, as he asserted he did, explicitly told Mr.
Canning that the substance of his suggestions, respecting
the repeal of the embargo, came from his government, he
was guilty of misrepresentation; and if he did make such a
proposal, he was no less guilty of a breach of the orders of
his government, which forbade him to give any such expecta-
tion. What makes the matter worse was that Mr. Pinkney
himself, in his letters to Mr. Madison, recognized the policy ;
— in one of the month of May, he tells him that he had
taken care to make no proposal. There is still stronger evi-
dence of Mr. Pinkney's conviction, that he was not author-
ized by his government to offer the repeal of the embargo ;
for on the 5th of June he wrote another letter, in which he
informed Mr. Madison that he was to have an interview with
Mr. Canning in a few days, that he would then press the
suggestion of repealing the embargo law. ' But,' adds this
worthy representative of his honest and honorahle cabinet, * I
shall, for obvious reasons, do this informally, as my own
act.' And further on in the same letter, he says, ' You may
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 143
be assured that I will not comynit our government hy any
thing I may do or say.'
" From the whole of this, it is evident that Mr. Pinkney
not only entered into the views . of his employers to cajole
the British minister, but even debased himself by palpable
falsehood, to cover them from the effects of that indignation
which their country must necessarily feel, on finding that,
while they affected to negotiate, they only meant to insult
and betray,"
Let us now look at the charge and the proof. Is it true,
or is it false ? It is charged that Mr. Pinkney exceeded his
instructions, and endeavored to deceive Mr. Canning by falsely
quoting from them. To substantiate the charge and convict
Mr. Pinkney of a palpable disobedience of the orders of his
government and the perpetration of a gross fraud on Mr.
Canning, this writer affirms that Mr. Pinkney's instructions
were contained in the answer of Mr. Madison to Mr. Erskine,
which made the atonement for the insult offered in the at-
tack on the Chesaj^eake a sine qua non, without which no
expectation of the suspension of the embargo was to be en-
couraged, even though the decrees in council should be re-
scinded. By a reference to the 7th vol. of State Papers,
p. 28, it will be seen, that the letter of Mr. Madison to
Mr. Pinkney, dated April 4th, 1808, contained those in-
structions. The atonement for the insult offered in the at-
tack on the Chesapeake was made in that letter the sine
qua non. Thus far the writer states the truth. The letter
of Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Canning, dated October 10th, 1808,
is adduced in evidence. In it he affirms, that in their first
interview he had notified Mr. Canning of the intention of
our government to suspend the embargo in case the orders
in council were repealed, without any reference to the affair
of the Chesapeake. And that this notification was made in
obedience to the instructions he had received from gov-
ernment. This also is truly stated. These instructions,
144 LIFE or WILLIAM PINKNEY.
this author maintains, do not bear Mr. Pinkney out. They
neither sustain him in the assurance given to Mr. Canning,
nor the assertion that in giving that assurance he quoted
from them correctly. " No such words as Mr. Pinkney pre-
tended to have repeated, vs^ere in his letter of instructions,
but words directly the reverse." So that "if he had, as
he asserted he did, expressly told Mr. Canning that the
substance of his suggestions respecting the suspension of
the embargo came from his government, he was guilty of
misrepresentation ; and if he did make the proposal, he
was not less guilty of a breach of the orders of his govern-
ment, which forbade liim to give any such expectation.'^
This seems to be a very formidable impeachment. It
looks very like the truth. Such a minute and scathing
analysis of facts and dates, would seem to indicate a con-
scious rectitude of purpose and a deep conviction of exact-
ness. Before I proceed farther in the investigation, I beg
leave to call attention to another fact contained in this letter
of October 10 (concerning which this author is unaccounta-
bly silent), because it is material to the issue between us ;
and that is, that this first interview was held on the 29 th of
June.
Now I deny that the letter of the 4th of April or the
instructions contained in it, which tliis author quotes with
so much seeming exultation, constituted the authority on
which 3Ir. Pinkney made his overture in the interview of
June 29th ; and I have the proof to sustain the denial. In
a letter, dated April 30th, which may be found in Vol.
VII. State Papers, p. 32, Mr. Madison thus wrote to Mr.
Pinkney :
" In order to entitle the British government to a discon-
tinuance of the embargo, as it applies to Great Britain, it
is evident that all its decrees as well those of January,
1807, as of November, 1807, ought to be rescinded as tliey
apply to the United States, &c. Should the British govern-
LIFE OF "^LLIAM PINKNEY. 145
ment take this cowse you may authorize an expectation, that
the President will loithin a reasonable time give effect to the
authority vested in him on the subject of the embargo laws."
This letter was received anterior to the interview of the 29th
of June, and subsequent to the letter of April the 4th. It
was intended to control the overture made by Mr. Pinkney,
and it did control it. For in the letter of Mr. Pinkney to
Mr. Madison, dated August 4th, he speaks of this very let-
ter of instructions of April 30th, as having been received by
him previousl}" to that interview, and used on that occasion.
Mr. Pinkney tells Mr. Madison, from whom his instructions
were received, and to whom he reported his official conduct,
that he made his proposal, which is so summarily condemned
by this writer as exceeding his instructions, on the express
authority of this letter of the 30th of April. See State
Papers, Vol. VII. p. 43.
What now becomes of the assertion that no such words
as Mr. Pinkney stated were contained in his instructions,
were to be found in them ? And what must be said of an
author, who confounds instructions contained in a letter of
one date with those of another, and in his eager partisan
zeal to find topics of bitter accusation never chlmces to stum-
ble upon letters, that are in almost immediate juxtaposition,
in which the party accused states what he had done, and
why he had done it. There was a violation of orders of
government in the intendew of June 29th, says this author ;
and a coDtemptible attempt at fraud, inasmuch as the in-
structions of April 4th explicitly required the settlement of
the affair of the Chesapeake as the sine qua non. There
was no violation of the orders of government and no attempt
at the perpetration of a fraud, says truthful history, inas-
much as the instructions which Mr. Pinkney expressly de-
clared he followed in that interview are contained in the
letter of April the 30th, though not in that of April the 4th,
and are rightly quoted.
10
146 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
The proof upon which this author rested his grave alle-
gation, is supposed by him to he strengthened by the fact^
that in two letters (one of May, the other of the 5th of June)
Mr. Pinkney professes his intention to act in accordance with
the instructions of April the 4th. But this, so far from af-
fording proof that Mr. Pinkney exceeded his instructions,
proves the very reverse. It shows conclusively that he ad-
hered most rigidly to them, for up to June 5th there is de-
monstrative evidence that the letter of the 30th of April
had not been received. In that very letter of June 5th,
which this author had the audacity to quote, Mr. Pinlmey
acknowledges the receipt of the letter of April 4th. Of
course that of April the 30 th could not have been received.
This letter of April 4th was the only one acted upon U]i to
the 5th of June, and for the best of all reasons, because it
was the only one received at that time. The letter of April
the 30th, which totally changed the ground and nature of
the instructions, was received however before the interview
of June the 29th, as Mr. Pinkney declares in his letter of
August the 4th.
All these letters were accessible to this anonymous author,
and examined by him. It is therefore difficult to conceive
of the disingenuousness and want of candor, that pervade his
work. When a man so far forgets himself and his own sense
of honor and of right, as to hurl accusations of the most of-
fensive kind against the official conduct of another ; and
stands convicted, by the very authorities he adduces, of the
grossest ignorance or the most glaring misrepresentations, he
entitles himself to but little mercy. His ignorance may
shield him from the severer condemnation, but it cannot save
his book from the infamy assigned to it by his own indorse-
ment of the sentence, " that if a history wants truth it wants
every thing that can recommend it." How emphatic are
the words of Johnson, " There is such a thing as mistaking
the venom of the shaft for the vigor of the bow. It is not
LIFE OF WILLIAM PIKKNEY. 147
hard to be sarcastic in a mask. If we leave such a writer
only his merits, where will be his praise ?"
ISlr. Pinkney was not insensible to the fetters that re-
strained him in his correspondence with Canning. He was
hampered by the exceeding difficulties of his position. Had
he been free to address Mr. Canning, as at a subsequent
period he did Lord Wellesley, in the strain his own feelings
dictated, he would have shown that in sarcasm he was not
inferior to that eminent statesman, as he had proved himself
to be more than his equal in power of argument and frank-
ness of disposition. If ever honor and a scrupulous conscien-
tiousness adorned the diplomatic conduct of any minister, they
did that of the gentleman thus bitterly assailed. I exult-
ingly point to the correspondence hereunto annexed, and
am satisfied that it will be found upon examination to be
not less conspicuous for high, honorable, manly feeling, than
pre-eminent ability. It wiU bear a favorable comparison
with that of any other period of the republic marked by
equal hazard, delicacy and difficulty. He uniformly main-
tained that the embargo was "a measure of wise and
peaceful precaution, adojDted under the view of reasonably
anticipated peril." He was a profound admirer and consist-
ent supporter of the embargo and the non-importation act ;
and without entering upon the discussion of its merits or de-
mands, I beg leave to introduce to the public for the first
time an article of singular force and ability found among the
few sur\'iving papers of Mr. Pinkney. It was his habit to
throw off hastily his views of such important measures, and
then throw them aside. Those who are accustomed to re-
view our past history, will remember that those measures
produced at the time a profound sensation in the country.
The embargo excited the Eastern States to a most fearful
degree, and the non-importation act was not less bitterly op-
posed. The embargo was the policy of Jefferson's adminis-
tration, and was laid on the 23d of December, 1807. Its
148 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
character to respect and its title to support, as the wisest
measure that could at that time be adopted, it is not my
province to discuss. Suffice it to say, that it was repealed
on the 1st of March, 1809, and that a sort of substitute for
it was found in the non-intercourse act. Mr. Pinkney thus
wrote :
"Will that miserable shadow of a system, called the
non-intercourse act, sink even below its own inherent weak-
ness, as we know it will, by the disUke of many and the in-
diflPerence of all, be such an instrument as our government
ought to wield against the most alarming and pernicious of
aU the pretensions of a jealous and encroaching j^ower — pre-
tensions which, if once allowed to gain the sanction of pre-
cedent, can only be beaten down by force ?
" The embargo was a noble and magnificent efibrt, suited
to the extraordinary occasion by which it was suggested,
and adequate if persevered in to all its purposes. That great
measure being abandoned, no half-way scheme, of the same
family, can ever hope to stand in its place, and be ef-
fectual.
" The non-intercourse act may furnish incentives to com-
mercial frauds and fuel to faction — it may render govern-
ment odious by its penalties, and its cause contemptible by
its feebleness — it may display anger without sj)irit, and a
more than Christian patience under wrongs which it is for-
ward to proclaim — it may combine a practical submission to
injury and insult, with that show and bustle of resentment
which produces nearly all the losses and more than the pos-
sible disgraces of war without its glory or its graces. It may
do all this — but the United States can never stand behind
so mean a contrivance and affect to call it resistance, where
a single power is engaged in systematic attempts to push
others from the seas and to cover them with dishonor.
" Nothing seems to me to be more clear, than that such a
measure does just enough to demonstrate that we ought to do
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 149
more. It is at once a Manifesto — and a Capitulation, It
struts at the same time that it truckles, and it is so contrived
that what it says is the severest censure upon the nothing
which it does.
" Every reproach which was falsely cast upon the emhargo
belongs by indisputable title to this, its crippled and bastard
progeny. While France and England, agreeing in nothing
else, were in conspiracy to persecute our commerce and vio-
late our neutral rights, the embargo was not only our natural,
but our only resource. It promised to be successful when
war promised nothing but ruin — and it would have been
successful, but that time and prosperity had alloyed our vir-
tue and unfitted us for such a trial. If we had elected war,
we must have thrown down the gauntlet in a paroxysm of
romantic courage to both England and France ; but it was
our business to perceive, and our government did perceive, that
the combination of those two gigantic powers in the work
of om- oppression, made any experiment for reconciling peace
with resistance not only prudent but honorable. Any
other measure than the embargo would, in such circum-
stances, have been madness or cowardice. For no others were
in our choice but war with both aggressors, or submission to
both ; with the certainty too, that that submission would in
its progress either lead to war, or to a state of abject de-
gradation."
The letter of President Jefferson, dated August 5th, 1809,
expressive of his satisfaction in noting both the matter and
manner with which Mr. Pinkney discharged his pubHc duties;
and the unwilhngness of Mr. Madison to allow him to return
to the United States, at his own urgent request, are his
highest vindication.
Success does not always prove the measure of ability and
skill employed in negotiation, or the merit of the claims to
be adjudicated. England was at that time the proud mis-
tress of the seas. Her sway on that mighty element was
150 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
undisputed. She was battling with the powers of France in
a death struggle. She was pushing forward her enterprising
commerce with jealous activity on every sea ; and she looked
with evident suspicion and displeasure on our rising maritime
power. It was with England thus circumstanced in the full
flush of her nautical skill and i)rowess, "whose drum beat
was echoed " wherever the wail of ocean was heard, that Mj.
Pinkney had to treat ; and the question was one which
touched at once her pride and vaunted supremacy. His
failure does him no discredit as a statesman. He pursued
his work with a steadiness, industry, firmness and ability,
always equal to the occasion, and never allowed himself to
be seduced into chicanery or duplicity by the hopes of ulterior
ends. He was above intrigue, and in the firm belief that
honesty is the only becoming national jiolicy, he stood forth
the plain honest Republican, in the midst of the intrigues
of courts, and the hollow professions of those w^ho repre-
sented them.
None knew better than he how to scathe and rebuke op-
pression and wrong, or could see more thoroughly through
the craftiness, that sometimes disfigures the diplomatic con-
duct of a Canning and Wellesley. He bore much for his
country's sake, and the love of peace ; for he was emphatic-
ally a man of peace. He took no pleasure in sounding the
tocsin of war. But still the letter of December 31st, 1807,
and the whole of his diplomatic correspondence show, that
he loved not peace, when it called for the sacrifice of national
honor and consistency. He no sooner saw that negotiation
must prove fruitless, and that English pride and arrogance
must be humbled before justice could be secured, than he
returned, and aroused his countrymen to war.
There was a beautiful combination of urbanity and firm-
ness, courtesy and independence, a patient spirit of endur-
ance, and keen instinctive repugnance to what was wrong,
in the political character of Mr. Pinkney. So far as I know,
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 151
there is not one expression which need cause the most fas-
tidious of his countrymen to blush, or give occasion to the
most unrelenting of his opponents to afford even a momen-
tary exultation,
Mr. Pinkney's great abilities, and unpai-alleled patience
of investigation, and keen discrimination of character, and
thorough comprehension of all the great questions that at
that time agitated and disturbed the world, are not in my
opinion to be put in comparison with his love of truth and
justice. If intrigue, the ability to prosecute ends in them-
selves doubtful or manifestly wrong by means not less doubtful
and immoral, be constituents in the character of a states-
man ; then Mr. Pinkney was no statesman. He scorned to
gain an end by tortuous means ; and would have retired in-
stantly, in disgust, from a public service, whose policy he
did not beheve to be just and upright. His moral percep-
tions were most delicately attuned, and there pervades his
whole foreign correspondence, like a thread of silver hue, a
most admirable love of justice and abhorrence of wrong.
Let the correspondence speak for itself, and I am silent.
Were a witness, above and beyond his correspondence, neces-
sary to enforce this impression of his character upon the
heart of his countrymen, we have it. It was a British states-
man of distinction who said of him in Parliament, " that he
was a man of sound sense and judgment, of an able and
astute mind, and of highest reputation ; — that he had con-
ducted himself during his residence in the country in a man-
ner most honorable to himself and likely to benefit both
nations — at all times taking the most impartial views of the
different interests concerned, his conduct, though firm, had
been most concihatory. Firm to liis purpose, and able to
elucidate the subjects under discussion, he had never failed
in time, punctuality, or mode of procedure in his mission." —
Olive Branch, p. 356.
This voluntary and noble tribute from a distinguished
152 LIFE OF WILLIAM 'PINKNEY.
stranger, expressed with a nervous comprehensiveness of
style and a boldness of panegyric, that cannot but be ad-
mired, found an eloquent echo in the following beautiful tri-
bute from the pen of Judge Story, The accomplished
American jurist speaks of him as " one who, while abroad,
honored his country by an unparalleled display of diplo-
matic science; and on his return illuminated the halls of jus-
tice with an eloquence of argument and depth of learned
research that have not been exceeded in our day." — Story
(Vol. I. 276).
A single glance into the Neapolitan mission — Mr, Pink-
ney's management of affairs on that occasion has been the topic
of severe criticism in a high quarter. A writer in the North
American (Vol, XXI, p. 272), in a quite elaborate review,
seems to think that he was caught like a lion in the toils of
a wily Neapolitan functionary; and is disposed to condemn
him for the exhibition of a weak credulity, that was but too
easily snared by the crafty and designing. But what are
the facts in the case, and how do they sustain this criticism?
I greatly mistake the force of the evidence, if it does not
prove, not want of capacity or deficiency of shrewdness in the
minister, but want of discernment in the reviewer.
The object of Mr. Pinkney's mission to Naples was, to
obtain indemnity for losses sustained by the illegal seizure
and confiscation of property belonging to our citizens by the
Neapolitan government.
He was instructed to manifest a spirit of conciliation
towards the government of Naples.
That Mr. Pinkney acted with great promptitude, se-
cured an early audience, and followed it up with marked
decision and firmness, the correspondence conclusively proves.
He set forth at once, in a letter of signal ability, published
in this memoir, the demands and expectations of our gov-
ernment. The discussion, though temperate and respectful,'
is perfectly conclusive. It leaves no ground for cavil ; no
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 153
room for dispute. It must rank, in the estimation of all
disinterested and impartial judges, as one of the most lucid
and masterly expositions of the subject in controversy that
ever emanated from a representative of our glorious Union
abroad. His presence in the kingdom, he very well knew,
had caused great uneasiness and perplexity. The smallness
of the resources of the Neapolitan government, and the
extent of our claim, were well calculated to agitate and em-
barrass the king and his advisers. Mr. Pinkney determined
to deepen this impression, and, instead of useless confer-
ences with a minister, who could adjust nothing in dispute,
he sent in his letter, setting forth in language not to be mis-
understood, and with an array of arguments not to be an-
swered, the justice and equity of our claim.
To this letter Mr. Pinkney received no reply. He
"pressed the marquis for an answer, and insisted that if he
could not reply to it immediately he would name the time
within which it was probable he could do so." Here was
no slumbering over duty, no tame submission, no weak ir-
resolution. What was the answer of the Neapolitan min-
ister to the strong and earnest language of Mr. Pinkney ?
How did he justify the conduct of his government "? He
said "that an immediate answer was really impossible, and
that he could not, without running the risk of misleading
Mr. Pinkney, fix any precise time for the giving of such an
answer as should be categorical." When asked the reason
of this, " he observed that the papers had been scattered
about in such a way that, with all the diHgence they could
use, they had not been able to collect them ; that all proper
steps had been taken by the king's government for obtaining
the papers, &c."
What was the course that j^ropriety, delicacy, and na-
tional decorum demanded of our minister under such cir-
cumstances.'' Doubt of the word, impeachment of the
motive, or censure of the conduct pursued by his Majesty's
154 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
government ? Let Mr. Pinkney be heard, and we rest his
vindication ujDon the answer, without fear of the result.
" Avoiding extremes of every kind, I have sought to write
and speak with poHteness, but, at the same time, explicitly
and firmly. Without being studiously conciUatory, I have
forborne all menaces. I might have contrived to display a
more active and zealous importunity than my letters de-
scribe ; but it could only have been that teazing importu-
nity which, wanting dignity, and unauthorized by usage, has
nothing to recommend its introduction into transactions like
this. No proper opportunity has been missed to urge this
government to a favorable decision. The reasons suggested
for a short postponement of its decision are such as, I sup-
pose, I could not quarrel with without putting myself in
the wrong. They are perfectly respectful to the United
States, and of real weight in themselves."
What American will impeach the logic or morale of this
reasoning ? We had an unsettled claim against a weaker
power. That i)Ower solicited, in a spirit of seeming fairness,
time for collecting the papers in evidence, after having used,
as they averred, all proper diligence, to get possession of
them. The plea is admitted by our agent. Who will con-
demn the deed ? and what, though the j^lea turned out to
be deceptive and false, a mere trick of diplomatic finesse,
is it admissible to seize hold of a subsequent disclosure, and
urge it to the prejudice of the party negotiating ?
If, as the reviewer intimates, Mr. Pinkney was politely
bowed out of Naples, and a trick resorted to, to rid the
government of the presence of one whom they had good
cause to dread, it is to his lasting honor that he scorned the
imputation of an unworthy motive to the government of
Naples, upon vague suspicion, and dealt with her with a
moderation and tender policy worthy of a better cause. His
letter of August 24th, was a triumpliaiit vindication of our
rights, and his decUning to proceed in extremis, and lending
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 155
a favorable ear to what appeared to be reasonable in itself,
just, and fair, and could be construed into no want of re-
spect for the United States ; so far from diminishing his
reputation as a statesman, and exposing him to censure, is
a beautiful illustration of his characteristic fairness and
honesty of deportment.
The reviewer wrote under the influence of light thrown
upon the transaction by subsequent events. He saw the
end from the beginning. The treachery and dupUcity of
the Court of Naples were, at the time he wrote, things de-
monstrated. But it is due to Mr. Pinkney to remember,
that dupHcity proved is quite a different thing from duplic-
ity assumed. Mr. Pinkney was compelled to act upon the
alleged reasons of the government of Naples, the distinct
and positive assurances of the marquis ; and it would have
been rude in the extreme to have called the candor and fair
deahng of the Neapolitan government in question uj)on
mere suspicion. In forming our judgment upon the true
merits of the case, and deciding upon the wisdom and pro-
priety of the course pursued by Mr. Pinkney, we must place
ourselves in his position, and banish from our minds facts
that were subsequently revealed.
Mr. Pinkney's ability in discussing great constitutional
questions, was often tested in the Supreme Court of the
Union and on the floor of Congress ; and he always spoke
to command admii-ation. There was a loftiness of principle,
a broad nationality, a dignity and gravity, that indicated a
beautiful and abiding appreciation on his part of the vast
importance of every constitutional discussion. He never
opened his lips in the examination of that august instrument
but he seemed to behold his country's honor and true glory
involved in the issue. He always merged the advocate in
the comprehensive, enlarged, august American statesman.
And perhaps on no occasion did he display his j)rofound
acquaintance with the great principles of the constitution,
156 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
or his keen analytic logic, or pure American feeling more
conspicuously, than in the discussion on the floor of the
Senate, of the great Missouri question.
Mr. Pinkney, it has been shown, was but a short time in
Congress. While a member of the lower House he em-
barked in the discussion of the treaty-making power. Some
of the first men in the country figm-ed in that Congress,
and participated in that debate. John Kandolph, the
pride and boast of Virginia, followed in reply. He paid the
highest compliment to the eloquence and power of Mr.
Pinkney, but wholly discarded his view of the question.
The whole force of the opposition was turned against this
speech, with what degree of correctness we leave posterity
to decide. This was the first time that Randolph and
Pinkney encountered each other ; and it is gratifying to
know, that the conflict was characterized in the beginning
with the most cordial exju'essions of mutual admiration and
respect, and ended in the most unlimited homage of the
former to the powers of the latter ; who, after the delivery
of the speech on the Missouri Compromise, it has been said
to me, did not hesitate to accord to Mr. Pinkney the rank
of the first constitutional lawyer and statesman in the
land.
It may be thought that I have consumed too much time,
and put myself to needless trouble, in vindicating Mr. Pink-
ney's title to the name and character of a statesman. But
when it is remembered, that so many years have passed
since he served the country in that capacity, and that in
the only biography written of him there is scarce any men-
tion made of this feature of his character, — when it is re-
membered that the country was distracted at the time by
the most rancorous party dissensions, and that the bitterness
of partisan fury was let loose upon him ; it will be conceded
that liis life could not properly be written, or his character
drawn, without a calm review of the services rendered, and
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 157
the accusations hurled against liim. The most eloquent of
New England's sons and the fii'st of her U\ing lawyers, Rufus
Choate, in an eulogy upon recent departed worth, undertook
to limit Mr. Pinkney's pre-eminence to the Bar, and to
throw a veil over his qualities as a statesman. He either
had not looked into this chapter of Mr. Pinkney's life, or
else was disposed to overlook its incontestable claims to a
nation's gratitude and praise. The time was, when New
England thought and spoke differently upon this subject.
Her own Story declared, that Mr. Pinkney "honored the
country while abroad by an unjmraUeled display of dij^lo-
matic science, and on his return, illuminated the halls of
justice with an eloquence of argument and depth of learned
research, that has not been exceeded in our day." The North
American Review, speaking the convictions of another of New
England's distinguished sons, declared that he was second to
none of the great names opposed to him in all the quahties
that make up the august character of a statesman. Hundreds
who might read and receive as oracular, the burning elo-
quence of Rufus Choate, if the biography of William Pink-
ney were wanting in fidehty to his memory, may be induced
to pause and consider ere they give too easy credence to the
behef that Pinkney's chief excellence was that of a lawyer,
when they peruse these pages, and listen, not only to what
Story has said, but recall to mind a fact in the history of the
past, known at this day to but few, that as early as 1819
he aimed the first decisive blow at the mad siDirit of nulHfi-
cation, and brushed away, " as with a mighty besom, the
cobweb conceits about State rights and State sovereignty," at
a time, too, when their own incomparable Webster was by
his side ; and, in 1820, stood forth the defender of the
States against the infringement of national usurpation ; thus
entitling himself to the lasting gratitude of his country, for
so poising the shield of the constitution, as to protect each of
these associate powers in its own peculiar and appropriate
158 , LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
jurisdiction. I may close this portion of tlie biography with
the expression of surprise, that such distinguished testimony
and trumpct-tongued facts should be so soon forgotten, or
strangely overlooked in her present eloquent musings of
the past.
Vir clarissimus, amantissimus Keipublicse benefacere
amplissimis aifectus, summis ornamentis honoris, fortunae,
virtutis ingenii j^r^editus.
The annexed memorial was written by Mr. Pinkney, and
pronounced at the time by a distinguished judge to " be a
most masterly composition, a complete and unanswerable
defence of neutral rights against the belligerent pretensions
and encroachments, whose maxims were ivorthy of being
committed to memonj hij every statesman in all countries."
MEMORIAL ON THE RULE OF THE WAR OF 1756.
To tJie President of the United States, and the Seriate and
House of Bepresentatives of the United States of America,
in Congress assembled.
THE MEMORIAL OF THE MERCHANTS AND TRADERS OF THE
CITY OF BALTIMORE.
Tour memorialists beg leave respectfully to submit to
your consideration the following statements and reflections,
produced by the situation of our public affairs, in a high de-
gree critical and perilous, and peculiarly affecting the com-
merce of their country.
In the early part of the late war between Great Britain
and France, the former undertook to prohibit neutral na-
tions from all trade whatsoever with the colonies of the lat-
ter. This exorbitant pretension was not long persisted in.
It was soon qualified in favor of a direct trade between the
United States and these colonies, and some years afterwards was
LIFE or WILLIAM PINKNET. 159
further relaxed in favor of European neutrals. The United
States being thus admitted, by the express acknowledgment
of Great Britain, to a direct trade, without limit, between
their own ports and the colonies of the opposite belligerents,
another trade naturally and necessarily grew out of it, or ra-
ther formed one of its principal objects and inducements.
The surplus colonial produce, beyond our own consumption,
imported here, was to be carried elsewhere for a market ; and
it was accordingly carried to Europe, sometimes by the ori-
ginal importer, sometimes by other American merchants,
either in the vessels in which the importation was made, or
in others. In the course of this traffic, it was understood to
be the sense of Great Britain, and was explicitly declared
by her courts of prize, that although she had not expressly
allowed to the merchants of the United States, by the letter
of her relaxations, an immediate trade between the colonies
of her enemies and the markets of Europe, a circuitous trade
to Europe, in the production of these colonies, was unexcep-
tionable ; and nothing more was .necessary to make it so,
than that the continuity of the voyage should be broken by
an entry, and payment of duties, and the landing of the co-
lonial cargo in the United States. During the greater part
of the late war, and the first years of the present, this trade
was securely prosecuted by our merchants, in the form which
Great Britain had thus thought fit to give it.
The modification of a traffic, in itself entitled to be free,
was submitted to, on our part, without repining, because it
presented a clear and definite rule of conduct, which, al-
though unauthorized in the light of a restriction, was not
greatly inconvenient in its practical operation ; and your me-
morialists entertained a "confident hope, that, while on the
cue hand, they sought no change of system by which the as-
sumption of Great Britain to impose terms, however mild in
their character and effect, upon their lawful commerce,
should be repelled ; on the other hand, it would be desired,
160 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
that the state of things which Great Britain had herself pre-
scribed, and which use and habit had rendered famihar, and
intelligible to all, should be disturbed by oppressive innova-
tions ; far less that these innovations should, by a tyrannical
retrospection, be made to justify the seizure and confiscation
of their property, committed to the high seas, under the pro-
tection of the existing rule, and without warning of the in-
tended change.
In this their just hope, your memorialists have been fa-
tally disappointed. Their vessels and effects, to a large
amount, have lately been captured by the commissioned
cruisers of Great Britain, upon the foundation of new prin-
ciples, suddenly invented, and applied to this habitual traf-
fic, and suggested, and promulgated, for the first time, by
sentences of condemnation ; by which, unavoidable ignorance
has been considered as criminal, and an honorable confidence
in the justice of a friendly nation, pursued with penalty and
forfeiture.
Your memoriaUsts are in no situation to state the pre-
cise nature of the rules to which their most important in-
terests have thus been sacrificed : and it is not the least of
their complaints against them, that they are undefined, and
undefinable, equivocal in their form, and the fit instruments
of oppression by reason of their ambiguity.
Your memorialists know that the circumstances which
have heretofore been admitted to give legality to their trade,
in colonial productions, with their European ftiends, protect
it no longer. But they have not yet been told, and are not
soon likely to learn, what other circumstances will be suf-
fered to produce that consequence. It is supposed to have
been judicially declared, in generalj that a voyage under-
taken for the purpose of bringing into the United States the
produce of the belhgerent colonies, purchased by American
citizens, shall, if it appears to be intended that this produce
shall ultimately go on to Europe, and an attempt is actually
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 161
made to re-export and send it thither, be considered, on ac-
count of that intention, as a direct voyage to Europe, and
therefore illegal, notwithstanding any temporary interruption
or termination of it in the United States.
Your memorialists will not here stop to inquire upon
what grounds of law or reason the same act is held to be
legal when commenced with one intention, and illegal when
undertaken with another. But they object, in the strongest
terms, against this new criterion of legality, because of its
inevitable tendency to injustice ; because of its peculiar
capacity to embarrass with seizure, and to ruin with
confiscation, the whole of our trade with Europe in the sur-
plus of our colonial importations.
The inquiry which the late system indicated was short
and simple, and precluded error on all sides ; but the new re-
finement substitutes in its place a vast field of speculation,
overshadowed with doubt and uncertainty, and of which the
faint and shifting boundaries can never be distinctly known.
Intention, as to the object of our colonial voyages, may
be inferred from numerous circumstances, more or less con-
clusive. To anticipate them all is obviously impracticable ;
and of course to guard against the inference, in this respect,
which British captors and British courts may be disposed to
draw, will be impossible. Our property is therefore men-
aced by a great and formidable danger, which there are no
means of eluding ; for even if it should chance to escape the
condemnation which this pernicious novelty prepares for it,
the wound inflicted upon our commerce by arrestations on
suspicion, and detentions for adjudication, will be deep and
fatal. The efforts of our merchants will be checked and dis-
couraged by more than ordinary inquisitions ; our best con-
certed enterprises broken up, without the hope of retribu-
tion, or even reimbursement for actual costs, upon the footing
of an intention arbitrarily imputed ; and the only alterna-
tive which will be presented to our choice will be, either to
11
162 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
refrain at once from a traffic which enriches our country
while it benefits ourselves^ or to see it wasted, and in the
end destroyed, by a noxious system of maritime depredation.
Your memoriahsts are the more alarmed by this depart-
ure from a plain and settled rule, in favor of a pliant and
mysterious doctrine, so eminently suited to the accomplish-
ment of the worst purposes of commercial jealousy, because
the injurious and vexatious qualities of the substituted rule
must have been known to those who introduced it, and be-
cause, if these quahties did not recommend it to adoption, it
is difficult to conceive why it was adopted at all. If it is
meant that our trade to Europe shall, notwithstanding this
rule, be allowed to continue without being subjected to ex-
traordinary difficulties, operating as actual reductions and
mischievous restraints ; if it is meant that a few facts, known
and comprehended, shall, as heretofore, form a standard by
which the lawfulness of our European voyages may be une-
quivocally ascertained ; if a wide range has not been designed
for the inquuy after intention, and a real effect expected from
that inquiry ; if, in a word, the late regulation has not been
supposed to be capable of bearing on our trade in a manner
new and important, we should hardly have now been called
upon to remonstrate against a change. It is not pretended
that the rule now enforced against us, is levelled against any
practice to which we maybe supposed to have lent ourselves,
of disguising as our own the property of the enemies of Great
Britain. That is not its object ; and if it were, we are ena-
bled to assert, solemnly and confidently, that our conduct has
afforded no ground for the injurious suspicion which such an
object would imply. The view is professedly to regulate and
efiect our traffic in articles fairly purchased by us from others;
and if the consequences to that traffic were not intended to
be serious, and extensive, and permanent, your memorialists
search in vain for the motive by which a state, in amity with
our own, and moreover connected with it by the ties of com-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 163
mon interest, to which many considerations seem to give pe-
culiar strength, has been induced to indulge in a paroxysm
of capricious aggression upon our rights, by which it dishon-
ors itself without promoting any of those gi-eat interests for
which an enlightened nation may fairly be solicitous, and
which only a steady regard for justice can ultimately secure.
When we see a powerful state, in possession of a commerce
of which the world aifords no examples, endeavoring 'to in-
terpolate into the laws of nations casuistical niceties and way-
ward distinctions, which forbid a citizen of another inde-
pendent commercial country, to export from that countiy
what unquestionably belongs to him, only because he im-
ported it himself, and yet allow him to sell a right of export-
ing it to another ; which prohibit an end because it arises
out of one intention, but permit it when it arises out of two;
which, dividing an act into stages, search into the mind for
a correspondent division of it in the contemplation of its au-
thor, and determine its innocence or criminality accordingly;
which, not denpng that the property acquired in an author-
ized traffic, by neutral nations from belligerents, may become
incorporated into the national stock, and under the shelter of
its neutral character, thus superinduced, and still preserved,
be afterwards transported to every quarter of the globe, re-
ject the only epoch which can distinctly mark that incorpo-
ration, and point out none other in its j)lace ; which, pro-
posing to fix with accuracy and precision the line of demar-
cation, beyond which neutrals are trespassers upon the wide
domain of belligerent rights, involves every thing in darkness
and confusion ; there can be but one opinion as to the purpose
which all this is to accomplish.
Your memorialists have endeavored, with all that at-
tention which their natural anxiety was calculated to produce,
to ascertain the various shapes which the doctrine in question
is likely to assume in practice, but they have found it impossi-
ble to conjecture in what way, consistently with this doctrine,
164 LIFE OF WILLIAM PIXKNEY,
the excess of our imi)orts from the belligerent colonies can
find its way to foreign markets. The landing of the cargo,
and a compHance with all the forms and sanctions, upon
which our revenue depends, will not so terminate the voy-
age from the colonies, as that the articles may be imme-
diately re-exported to Europe by the original importer. But
if they cannot be exported immediately, what lapse of time
will give them a title to be sent abroad, and if not by the
original importer, how is he to devolve upon another a power
which he has not himself ? And if by a sale, he can com-
municate the power, by what evidence is the transfer to be
manifested, so as to furnish an answer to the ready accusa-
tion of fraud and evasion ? In proportion as this doctrine
has developed itself, it has been found necessary to invent
I)lausible qualifications, tending to conceal its real character
from observation. It has accordingly been surmised, that,
notwithstanding the obstacles which it provides against the
re-exportation of a colonial cargo by the importer, such a
re-exportation may, perhaps, be lawful. Attempts on his
part to sell in the United States, without effect, (which
must often happen), may, it is supposed, be sufiicient to save
him from the peril of the rule. But, admitting it to be cer-
tain, instead of being barely possible, that these attempts
would form any thing like security aganst final condemna-
tion, it is still most material to ask, how they are to afford
protection against seizure ? By what documents they can
be proved to the satisfaction of those to whom interest sug-
gests doubts, and whom impunity encourages to act upon
them ? The formal transactions of the custom-house once
deserted as a criterion, the cargo must be followed, through
private transfers, into the warehouses of individual mer-
chants ; and when proofs have been prepard, with the utmost
regularity, to establish these transfers, or the other facts
which may be deemed to be equivalent, they are still liable
to be suspected, and will b3 suspected, as fictitious and color-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 165
able, and capture will be the consequence. For the loss and
damage which capture brings along with it, British courts of
prize grant no adequate indemnity. Eedress to any extent
is difificult ; to a competent extent, impossible. And even
the costs which an iniquitous seizure compels a neutral mer-
chant to incur, in the defence of his violated rights, before
their own tribunals, are seldom decreed, and never paid.
Your memorialists have thus far complained only of the
recent abandonment, by Great Britain, of a known rule, by
which the oppressive character of an important principle of
her maritime code, has heretofore been greatly mitigated.
But they now beg leave to enter their solemn protest against
the princij)le itself, as an arbitrary and unfounded jDretension,
by which the just liberty of neutral commerce is impaired
and abridged, and may be wholly destroyed.
The reasons upon which Great Britain assumes to her-
self a right to interdict to the independent nations of the
earth, a commercial intercourse with the colonies of her ene-
mies (out of the relaxation of which pretended right has
arisen the distinction in her courts between an American
trade from the colonies to the United States, and from the
same colonies to Europe) will, we are confidently persuaded,
be repelled with firmness and effect by our government.
It is said by the advocates of this high belligerent claim,
that neutral nations have no right to carry on with either
of the parties at war, any other trade than they have actually
enjoyed in time of peace. This position forms the basis
upon which Great Britain has, heretofore, rested her sup-
posed title to prevent altogether, or to modify at her discre-
tion, the interposition of neutrals in the colony trade of her
adversaries.
But, if we are called upon to admit the truth of this
position, it seems reasonable that the converse of it' should
also be admitted. That war should not be allowed to dis-
turb the customary trade of neutrals in peace ; that the
166 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
peace-traffic shouldj in every view, be held to be the measure
of the war-traffic ; and that, as on the one hand there can
be no enlargement, on the other there shall be no restriction.
What, however, is the fact ? The first moment of hostili-
ties annihilates the commerce of the nations at peace, in
articles deemed contraband of war ; the property of the bil-
ligerents can no longer be carried in neutral ships ; they are
subject to visitation on the high seas ; to harassing and vex-
atious search ; to detention for judicial inquiry ; and to the
peril of unjust confiscation : they are shut out from their
usual markets, not only by military enterprises against par-
ticular places, carried on with a view to their reduction, but
by a vast system of blockade, affecting and closing up the
entire ports of a whole nation : such have been the recent
effects of an European war upon the trade of this neutral
country ; and the prospect of the future affords no consola-
tion for the past. The triumphant fleets of one of the con-
tending powers cover the ocean ; the navy of her enemies
has fallen before her ; the communication by sea with France,
and Spain, and Holland, seems to depend upon her will, and
she asserts a right to destroy it at her pleasure : she forbids
us from transporting, in our vessels, as in jieace we could,
the property of her enemies ; enforces against us a rigorous
list of contraband ; dams up the great channels of our ordi-
nary trade ; abridges, trammels, and obstructs what she per-
mits us prosecute, and then refers us to our accustomed
traffic in time of peace, for the criterion of our commercial
rights, in order to justify the consummation of that ruin
with which our lawful commerce is menaced by her maxims
and her conduct.
This principle, therefore, cannot be a sound one ; it wants
uniformity and consistency; is partial, unequal, and delusive:
it makes every thing bend to the rights of war, Avhile it af-
fects to look back to, and to recognize, the state of things in
peace, as the foundation and the measure of the rights of
XIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 16V
neutrals. Professing to respect the establislied and habitual
trade of the nations at peace, it affords no shadow of security
for any part of it : professing to be an equitable standard for
the ascertainment of neutral rights, it deprives them of all
body and substance, and leaves them only a plausible and
unreal appearance of magnitude and importance ; it delivers
them over, in a word, to the mercy of the states at war, as
objects of legitimate hostility; and while it seems to define,
does, in fact, extinguish them. Such is the faithful picture
of the theory, and practical operation of this doctrine.
But, independent of the considerations thus arising out
of the immediate interference of belligerent rights and bellig-
erent conduct with the freedom of neutral trade, by which
the fallacy of the appeal to the precise state of our peace-
trade, as limiting the nature and extent of our trade in war,
is sufficiently manifested, there are other considerations
which satisfactorily prove the inadmissibility of this principle.
It is impossible that war among the primary powers of
Europe should not, in an endless variety of shapes, mate-
rially affect the whole civilized world. Its operation upon
the prices of labor and commodities ; upon the value of
money; upon exchange ; upon the rates of freight and insur-
ance, is great and important. But it does much more than
all this. It imposes upon commerce in the gross, and in its
details, a new character ; gives to it a new direction, and
places it upon new foundations. It abolishes one class of
demands ; creates, or revives others ; and diminishes, or aug-
ments the rest. And, while the wants of mankind are in-
finitely varied by its powerful agency, both in object and
degree, the modes and sources of supply, and the means of
payment are infinitely varied also.
To prescribe to neutral trade thus irresistibly influenced,
and changed, and moulded by this imperious agent, a fixed
and unalterable station, would be to say that it shall i-emain
the same, when not to vary is impossible ; and to require,
168 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
since change is unavoidable, that it shall submit to the
ruinous retrenchments and modifications which war produces,
and yet refrain from indemnifying itself by the fair advan-
tages which war offers to it as an equivalent, cannot be war-
ranted by any rule of reason or equity, or by any law to which
the great community of nations owes respect and obe-
dience.
When we examine the conduct of the maritime powers
of Europe, in all the wars in which they have been engaged
for upwards of a century, we find that each of them has, oc-
casionally, departed from its scheme of colonial monopoly ;
relaxed its navigation laws, and otherwise admitted neutrals
for a longer or shorter space, as circumstances required, to
modes of trade from which they were generally excluded.
This universal practice, this constant and invariable
usage, for a long series of years, would seem to have estab-
lished among the I'^uropean states a sort of customary law
upon the subject of it, from which no single power could be
at liberty to depart, in search of a questionable theory at
variance with it. Great Britain is known to suspend, in war
and on account of war, her famous act of navigation, to which
she is supposed to owe her maritime greatness, and which,
as the palladium of her power, she holds inviolable in peace;
and her colonies are frequently thrown open, and neutrals in-
vited to supply them, when she cannot supply them hei-self.
She makes treaties in the midst of war (she made such a
treaty with us), by which neutrals are received into a partici-
pation of an extensive traffic, to which before they had no
title. And can she be suffered to object, that the same, or
analogous acts are unlawful in her enemies ; or that, when
neutrals avail themselves of similar concessions made by her
opponents, they are liable to punishment, as for a criminal
intrusion into an irregular and prohibited commerce ?
The weight of this consideration has been felt by the
advocates of this doctrine, and it has, accordingly, been at-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 169
tempted to evade it by a distinction, which admits the
legality of all such relaxations in war, of the general, com-
mercial or colonial systems of the heUigerents, as do not arise
out of the predominance of the enemy^s force, or out of any
necessity resulting from it.
It is aj)parent, however, that such relaxations, whether
dictated by the actual ascertained predominance of the
enemy's force, or not, do arise out of the state of war, and
are almost universally compelled, and produced by it ; that
they are intended as reliefs against evils which war has
brought along with it, and the opposite belligerent has just
as much right to insist, that these evils shall not be removed
by neutral aid, or interposition, as if they were produced by
the general preponderance of her own jDower, upon the land
or upon the sea, or by the general success of her arms. In
the one case, as completely as in the other, the interference
of the neutral lightens the pressure of war ; increases the
capacity to bear its calamities, or the power to inflict them ;
and supplies the means of comfort and of strength. In both
cases, the practical effect is the same, and the legal conse-
quences should be the same also.
But whence are we to derive the conclusion of the fact
upon which tliis extraordinary distinction is made to turn ?
How are we to determine with precision and certainty, the
exact cause which opens to us the ports of a nation at war —
to analyze the various circumstances, of which, perhaps, the
concession may be the combined effect ; and to assign to each
the just portion of influence to which it has a claim ? How
easy it is to deceive ourselves on a subject of this kind. Great
Britain will herself instruct us, by a recent example. Her
courts of prize have insisted that, during the war which ended
in the peace of Amiens, France was compelled to open the
ports of her colonies, by a necessity created and imposed by
the naval prowess of her enemies. And yet these j)orts were
opened in February, 1793, when France and her maritime
170 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
adversaries had not measured their strength in a single con-
flict ; when no naval enterprise had heen undertaken by the
latter, far less crowned with success ; when the lists were
not even entered, and when the superiority afterwards ac-
quired, by Great Britain in particular, was yet a problem ;
when the spirit of the French nation and government was
Lifted up to an unexampled height, by the enthusiasm of the
day, and by the splendid achievements by which their armies
had recently conquered Savoy, the county of Nice, Worms,
and other places on the Khine, the Austrian Low Countries,
and Liege. It w^ould seem to be next to impossible to con-
tend that a concession made by France to neutrals, on the
subject of her colony trade, at such a period of exultation
and triumph, was " compelled by the prevalence of British
arms," that it was " the fruit of British victories," or the re-
sult of " British conquest," that it arose out of the pre-
dominance of the enemy's force, that it was produced by
" that sort of necessity which springs from the impossibility
of otherwise providing against the urgency of distress inflicted
by the hand of a superior enemy," and that " it was a signal
of defeat and depression." It would seem to be impossible
to say of a traffic so derived, " that it could obtain or did
obtain, by no other title than the success of the one bellig-
erent against the other, and at the expense of that very bel-
ligerent under whose success the neutral sets up his title,"
Yet all these things have been said, and solemnly maintained,
and have even been made the foundation of acts, by which
the property of our citizens has been wrested from their hands.
It cannot be believed that the laws of nations have intrusted to
abelUgerent the power of harassing the trade, and confiscating
the ships and merchandise of peaceable and friendly nations,
upon grounds so vague, so indefinite, and equivocal. Of all
law, certainty is the best feature ; and no rule can be otherwise
than unjust and despotic, of which the sense and the apph-
cation are and must be ambiguous. A siege or blockade pre-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 171
gents an intelligible standard, by which it may always be
known, that no lawful trade can be carried on with the
places against which either has been instituted. But the
suggestions upon which this new belligerent encroachment,
having all the effect of a siege or blockade, is founded, are
absolutely incapable of a distinct form, either for the pur-
pose of warning to neutrals or as the basis of a judicial sen-
tence. The neutral merchant finds that, in fact, the colo-
nial ports of the parties to the war are tlu'own open to him
by the powers to wliich they belong ; and he sees no hos-
tile squadrons to shut them against him. Is he to pause,
before he ventures to exercise his natural right to trade
with those who are willing to trade with him, until he
has inquired and determined ivhy these ports have been
thus made free to receive him ? To such a compHcated
and delicate discussion, no nation has a right to call him. It
is enough that an actual blockade can be set on foot to close
these ports, and that they may be made the objects of direct
efforts, for conquest or occlusion, if the enemy's force is, in
truth, so decidedly predominant as is pretended to be. And
if it is not predominant to that point, and to that extent,
there can be no cause for ascribing to it an effect to which it
is physically incompetent, or for allowing it to do that con-
structively, wliich it cannot do, and has not done, actually.
The pernicious qualities of this doctrine are enhanced and
aggravated, as from its nature might be expected, by the
fact, that Great Britain gives no notice of the time when,
or the circumstances in which she means to apply and enforce
it. Her orders of the Gth of November, 1793, by which the
seas were swept of our vessels and effects, were, for the first
time, announced by the ships of war and privateers by which
they were carried into execution. The late decisions of her
courts, wliich are in the true spirit of this doctrine, and are
calculated to restore it, in practice, to that high tone of se-
verity which milder decisions had almost concealed from the
1V2 LITE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
world, came upon us by surprise ; and the captures of whicli
the Dutch complained in the seven years' war, were preceded
by no warning. Thus is this principle most rapacious and
oppressive in all its bearings. Harsh and mysterious in itself,
it has always been and ever must be used to betray neutral
merchants into a trade supposed to be lawful, and then to
give them up to pillage and to ruin. Compared with this
principle, which A^olence and artifice may equally claim for
their own, the exploded doctrine of constructive hlocJcade, by
which belligerents for a time insulted and plundered the
states at peace, is innocent and harmless. That doctrine
had something of certainty belonging to it, and made safety
at least possible. But there can be no securitj^ while a ma-
lignant and deceitful principle like this hangs over us. It
is just what a belligerent chooses to make it — lurking, un-
seen, and unfelt — or visible, active, and noxious. It may
come abroad when least expected ; and the moment of con-
fidence may be the moment of destruction. It may sleep
for a time, but no man knows when it is to awake, to shed its
baleful influence upon the commerce of the world. It clothes
itself from season to season, in what are called relaxations,
but again, without any previous intimation to the deluded
citizens of the neutral powers, these relaxations are suddenly
laid aside either in the whole or in part, and the work of
confiscation commences. Nearly ten months of the late war
had elapsed before it announced itself at all, and when it
did so, it Avas in its most formidable shape, and in its fullest
power and expansion. In a few weeks it was seen to lose
more than half its substance and character, and before the
conclusion of the war, was scarcely perceptible. With the
opening of the present war it reappeared in its mildest form,
which it is again abandoning for another, more consonant
to its spirit. Such are its capricious fluctuations, that no
commercial undertaking which it can in any way eftect, can
be considered as otherwise than precarious, whatever may
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 173
be the avowed state of the principle at the time of its com-
mencement.
It has been said that, by embarking in the colony trade
of either of the belligerents, neutral nations in some sort in-
terpose in the war, since they assist and serve the belliger-
ent, in whose trade they so embark. It is a sufficient an-
swer to this observation, that the same course of reasoning
would prove that neutrals ought to discontinue all trade
whatsoever with the parties at war. A continuance of their
accustomed peace trade assists and serves the belligerent with
whom it is continued ; and if this effect were sufficient to
make a trade unneutral and illegal, the best estabhshed and
most usual traffic would of course become so. But Great
Britain supplies us with another answer to this notion, that
our interference in the trade of the colonies of her enemies
is unlawful, because they are benefited by it. It is known
that the same trade is, and long has been, carried on by
British subjects; and your memorialists feel themselves
bound to state that, according to authentic information
lately received, the government of Great Britain does at this
moment grant licenses to neutral vessels, taking in a propor-
tion of their cargoes there, to proceed on trading voyages to
the colonies of Spain, from which she would exclude us, upon
the condition that the return cargoes shall be carried to
Great Britain, to swell the gains of her merchants, and to
give her a monopoly of the commerce of the world. This
great belligerent right then, upon which so much has been
supposed to depend, sinks into an article of barter. It is
used, not as a hostile instrument wielded by a warhke state,
by which her enemies are to be wounded, or their colonies
subdued, but as the selfish means of commercial aggrandize-
ment, to the impoverishment and ruin of her friends ; as an
engine by which Great Britain is to be lifted up to a vast
height of prosperity, and the trade of neutrals crippled, and
crushed, and destroyed. Such acts are a most intelligible
174 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
commentary upon the principle in question. They show that
it is a hollow and fallacious principle, susceptible of the
worst abuse, and incapable of a just and honorable applica-
tion. They show that in the hands of a great maritime
state, it is not in its ostensible character of a weapon of hos-
tility that it is prized, but rather as one of the means of
establishing an unbounded monopoly, by which every enter-
prise, calculated to promote national wealth and power, shall
be made to begin and end in Great Britain alone. Such
acts may well be considered as pronouncing the condemna-
tion of the principle against which we contend, as with-
drawing from it the only pretext upon which it is possible
to rest it.
Great Britain does not pretend that this principle has any
warrant in the opinions of writers on public law. She does
not pretend, and cannot pretend, that it derives any counte-
nance from the conduct of other nations. She is confessedly
solitary in the use of this invention, by which rapacity is sys-
tematized, and a state of neutrality and war are made sub-
stantially the same. In this absence of all other authority,
her courts have made an appeal to her own early example,
for the justification of her own recent practice. Your memo-
rialists join in that appeal, as affording the most conclusive
and authoritative reprobation of the practice which it is in-
tended to support by it.
It would be easy to show, by an examination of the dif-
ferent treaties to which Great Britain has been a party from
times long i)ast, that this doctrine is a modern usurpation.
It would be equally easy to show, that during the greater
part of the last century, her statesmen and lawyers uniformly
disavowed it, either expressly or tacitly. But it is to a re-
view oi judicial examples, of all others the most weighty and
solemn, that your memorialists propose to confine them-
selves.
In the war of 1744, in which Great Britain had the pow-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 175
er, if she had thought fit to exert it, to exchide the neutral
states from the colony trade of France and Spain, her high
court of appeals decided that the trade was lawful, and re-
leased such vessels as had been found engaged in it.
In the war which soon followed the peace of Aix la
Chapelle, Great Britain is supposed to have first acted upon
the pretension that such a trade was unlawful, as being shut
against neutrals in peace. And it is certain that, during the
whole of that war, her courts of prize did condemn all neu-
tral vessels taken in the prosecution of that trade, together
with their cargoes, whether French or neutral. These con-
demnations, however, proceeded upon peculiar grounds. In
the seven years' war France did not throw open to neutrals
the traffic of her colonies. She established no free ports in
the east, or in the west, with which foreign vessels could be
permitted to trade, either generally or occasionally as such.
Her first practice was simply to grant sjjecial licenses to par-
ticular neutral vessels, principally Dutch, and commonly
chartered by Frenchmen, to make, under the usual restric-
tions, particidar trading voyages to the colonies. These K-
censes furnished the British courts with a peculiar reason for
condemning vessels sailing under them, viz., " that they be-
came in virtue of them the adopted or naturalized vessels of
France."
As soon as it was known that this effect was imputed to
these licenses they were discontinued, or joretended to be so ;
but the discontinuance, whether real or supposed, produced
no change in the conduct of Great Britain ; for neutral ves-
sels, employed in this trade, were captured and condemned
as before. The grounds upon which they continued to be
BO captured and condemned, may best be collected from the
reasons subjoined to the printed cases in the j)rize causes de-
cided by the high court of admiralty (in which Sir Thomas
Salisbury at that time presided), and by the lords commision-
ers of appeals, between 1757 and 1760.
176 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
In the case of the America (which was a Dutch ship,
bound from St. Domingo to Hollancl, wdth the j)rocluce of that
island belonging to French subjects, by whom the vessel had
been chartered), the reason stated in the printed case is, "that
the ship must be looked upon as a French ship (coming from
St. Domingo), for by the laws of France no foreign ship can
trade in the French West Indies."
In the case of the Snip, the reason (assigned by Sir
George Hays and Mr. Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden) is,
" for that the Snip (though once the property of Dutchmen)
being employed in carrying provisions to, and goods from a
French colony, tlierehy became a French ship, and as such
was justly condemned."
It is obvious that the reason, in the case of the America,
proceeds upon a presumption, that as the trade w^as, by the
standing laws of France, even up to that moment, confined
to French ships, any ship found employed in it must be a
French ship. The reason in the other case does not rest
upon this idle presumption, but takes another ground ; for it
states, that by the reason of the trade in which the vessel
was employed, she became a French vessel.
It is manifest that tliis is no other than the first idea of
adoption or naturalization, accommodated to the change at-
tempted to be introduced into the state of things by the ac-
tual or pretended discontinuance of the sj)ecial licenses.
What then is the amount of the doctrine of the seven years'
war, in the utmost extent which it is j)Ossible to ascribe to
it ? It is in substance no more than this, that as France did
not, at any period of that war, abandon, or in any degree
suspend, the principle of colonial monopoly, or the system
arising out of it, a neutral vessel found in the prosecution of
the trade, which, according to that principle and that system
still continuing in force, could only be a French trade and
open to French vessels, either became, or was legally to be
presumed to be a French vessel. It cannot be necessary to
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 177
show that this doctrine differs essentially from the princi])le
of the present day ; but even if it were otherwise, the prac-
tice of that war, whatever it might he, was undoubtedly con-
trary to that of the war of 1744, and as contrasted with it,
will not be considered by those who have at all attended to
the history of these two periods, as entitled to any peculiar
veneration. The effects of that practice were almost wholly
confined to the Dutch, who had rendered themselves extreme-
ly obnoxious to Great Britain, by the selfish and pusillanimous
policy, as it was falsely called, which enabled them during
the seven years' war to profit of the troubles of the rest of
Europe,
In the war of 1744, the neutrality of the Dutch, while
it continued, had in it nothing of complaisance to France ;
they furnished from the commencement of hostilities, on
account of the pragmatic sanction, succors to the confede-
rates ; declared openly, after a time, in favor of the Queen
of Hungary ; and finally determined upon and prej^ared for
war, by sea and land. G-reat Britain, of course, had no in-
ducement in that war to hunt after any hostile principle, by
the operations of which the trade of the Dutch might be ha-
rassed, or the advantage of their neutral position, wliile it
lasted, defeated. In the war of 1756 she had this induce-
ment in its utmost strength. Independent of the commer-
cial rivalry existing between the two nations, the Dutch had
excited the undisguised resentment of Great Britain, by de-
clining to furnish against France the succors stipulated by
treaty ; by constantly supplying France with naval and
warlike stores, through the medium of a trade systemat-
ically pursued by the peoj^le, and countenanced by the gov-
ernment ; by granting to France, early in 1757, a fi'ee pas-
sage through Namur and Maestiicht, for the jDrovisions, am-
munition, and artillery, belonging to the army destined to act
against the territories of Prussia, in the neighborhood of
the Low Countries ; and by the indifference with which they
12
178 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
saw Nieiiport and Ostend surrendered into the hands of
France, by the court of Vienna, which Great Britain repre-
sented to be contrary to the Barrier treaty and the treaty of
Utrecht. Without entering into the sufficiency of these
grounds of dissatisfaction, which undoubtedly had a great
influence on the conduct of Great Britain towards the
Dutch, from 1757 until the peace of 1763, it is manifest
that this very dissatisfaction, little short of a disposition to
open war, and frequently on the eve of producing it, takes
away, in a considerable degree, from the authority of any
practice to which it may be supposed to have led, as tending
to establish a rule of the public law of Europe. It may not
be improper to observe too, that the station occupied by
Great Britain in the seven years' Avar (as proud a one as
any country ever did occupy), compared with that of the
other European powers, was not exactly calculated to make
the measures which her resentments against Holland or her
views against France might dictate, 2)eculiarly respectful to
the general rights of neutrals. In the north, Kussia and
Sweden were engaged in the confederacy against Prussia,
and were, of course, entitled to no consideration in this re-
spect. The government of Sweden was, besides, weak and
impotent. Denmark, it is, true, took no jmrt in the war,
but she did not suffer by the practice in question. Besides,
all these powers combined would have been as nothing
against the naval strength of Great Britain in 1758. As to
Spain, she could have no concern in the question, and at
length became involved in the war on the side of France.
Upon the whole, in the war of 1756, Great Britain had the
power to be unjust, and irresistible temptations to abuse it.
In that of 1744, her power was, perhajis, equally great, but
every thing was favorable to equity and moderation. The
example afforded on this subject, therefore, by the first war,
has far better titles to respect than that furnished by
the last.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 179
In the American war the practice and decisions on this
point, followed those of the war of 1744.
The question first came before the lords of appeal in Ja-
nuary, 1782, in the Danish cases of the Tiger, Copenhagen,
and others, captured in October, 1783, and condemned at
St, Kitts, in December following. The grounds on which
the captors relied for condemnation, in the Tiger, as set
forth at the end of the respondent's jirinted case, were,
" for that the ship, having been trading to Cape Francois,
where none but French ships are allowed to carry on any
traffic, and having been laden at the same time of the
capture, with the produce of the French part of the island
of St. Domingo, put on board at Cape Francois, and both
ship and cargo taken confessedly coming from hence,
must (pursuant to precedents in the like cases in the last
war), to all intents and purposes, be deemed a ship and goods
belonging to the French, or at least adopted, and natur-
alized as such."
In the Copenhagen, the captor's reasons are thus given :
" 1st. Because it is allowed that the ship was destined,
with her cargo, to the island of Guadaloupe, and no other
place."
" 2dly. Because it is contrary to the established rule of
general law, to admit any neutral ship to go to, and trade
at, a port belonging to a colony of the enemy, to lohich such
neutral ship coidd not have freely traded in time of peace."
On the 22d of January, 1782, these causes came on for
hearing before the lords of appeal, who decreed restitution
in all of them : thus in the most solemn and explicit man-
ner disavowing and rejecting the pretended rules of the law
of nations, upon which the captors relied ; the first of which
was literally borrowed from the doctrine of the war of 1756,
and the last of which is that very rule on which Great Bri-
tain now relies.
It is true, that in these cases the judgment of the lords
180 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
was pronounced upon one sliape only of the colony trade of
France, as carried on by neutrals ; that is to say, a trade
between the colony of France and that of the country of
the neutral shipper. But, as no distinction was sujiposed
to exist, in point of principle, between the different modifi-
cations of the trade, and as the judgment went upon gene-
ral grounds applicable to the entire subject, we shall not be
thought to overrate its effect and extent, when we represent
it as a complete rejection both of the doctrine of the seven
years' war, and of that modem principle by which it has
been attempted to rejilace it. But at any rate, the subse-
quent decrees of the same high tribunal did go that length.
Without enumerating the cases of various descriptions, in-
volving the Icgahty of the trade in all its modes, which were
favorably adjudged by the lords of apj^eal after the Ameri-
can peace, it will be sufficient to mention the case of the
Vervagting, decided by them in 1785 and 1786. This was
the case of a Danish ship laden with a cargo of drygoods
and provisions, with which she was bound on a voyage from
Marseilles to dlcaiinique and Cope Francois, where she was
to take in for Europe a return cargo of West India j)roduce.
The ship was not proceeded against, but the cargo, which
was claimed for merchants of Ostend, was condemned as
enemy's property (as in truth it was) by the vice-admii-alty
of Antigua, subject to the payment of freight, 2^'^^ ''^^<^
itineris, or rather for the whole of the outward voyage. On
appeal, as to the cargo, the lords of appeal, on the 8th of
March, 1785, reversed the condemnation, and ordered fur-
ther proof of the property to be produced within three
months. On the 28th of March, 1786, no further proof
having been exhibited, and the j^roctor for the claimants
daclaring that he should exhibit none, the lords condemned
the cargo, and on the same day reversed the decree below,
giving freight, 2^^'0 rata itineris (from which the neutral
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 181
master had appealed), and decreed freight generally, and the
costs of the appeal.
It is impossible that a judicial opinion could go more
conclusively to the whole question on the colony trade than
this ; for it not only disavows the pretended illegality of
neutral interpositions in that trade, even directly between
France and her colonies (the most exceptionable form, it is
said, in which that interposition could present itself), it not
only denies that property engaged in such a trade is, on that
account, hable to confiscation (inasmuch as, after havino-
reversed the condemnation of the cargo, pronounced below,
it proceeds afterwards to condemn it merely for want of
further proof as to the propeiiy), but it holds that the trade
is so unquestionably lawful to neutrals, as not even to put
in jeopardy the claim to freight for that part of the voyage
which had not yet begun, and which the party had not yet
put himself in a situation to begin. The force of this, and
the other British decisions produced by the American war,
will not be avoided, by suggesting that there was any thing
peculiarly favorable in the time when, or the manner in which,
France opened her colony trade to neutrals on that occasion.
Something of that sort, however, has been said. We find
the following language in a very learned oj)inion on this
point : " It is certainly true, that in the last war (the Ame-
rican war), many decisions took place which then pronounced,
that such a trade between France and her colonies was not
considered as an unneutral commerce ; but under what cir-
cumstances ? It was understood that France, in opening
her colonies during the war, declared, that this was not done
with a temporary view relative to the war, but on a general
permanent purpose of altering her colonial system, and of
admitting foreign vessels, universally, and at all times to a
participation of that commerce ; taking that to be the fact
(however suspicious its commencement might be, dming the
actual existence of a war), there was no ground to say, that
182 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
neutrals were not carrying on a commerce as ordinary as any
other in which they could be engaged ; and therefore in the
case of the Vervagting, and in many other succeeding cases,
the lords decreed payment of freight to the neutral ship-
owner. It is fit to be remembered on this occasion, that the
conduct of France evinced how httle dependence can be
placed upon explanations of measures adopted during the
pressure of war ; for, hardly was the ratification of the peace
assigned, when she returned to her ancient system of colonial
monopoly."
We answer to all this, that, to refer the decision of the
lords, in the Vervagting, and other succeeding cases, to the
reason here assigned, is to accuse that high tribunal of act-
ing upon a confidence which has no example, in a singularly
incredible declaration (if, indeed, such a declaration was
ever made), after the utter falsehood of it had been, as this
learned opinion does itself inform us, unequivocally and no-
toriously ascertained.
We have seen that the Vervagting was decided by the
lords in 1785 and 1786, at least two years after France had,
as we are told, " returned to her ancient system of colonial
monopoly," and when of course the supposed assertion, of an
intended permanent abandonment of that system, could not
be jiermitted to produce any legal consequence.
We answer further, that if this alleged declaration was
in fact made (and we must be allowed to say, that we have
found no trace of it out of the opinion above recited), it
never was put into such a formal and authentic shape as to
be the fair subject of judicial notice.
It is not contained in the French arrets of that day,
where only it would be proper to look for it, and we are not
referred to any other document proceeding from the govern-
ment of France, in which it is said to appear. There does
not, in a word, seem to have been any thing which an en-
lightened tribunal could be supposed capable of considering
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 183
as a pledge on the part of France, that she had resolved
upon or even meditated the extravagant change in her colo-
nial system which she is said, in this opinion, to have been
understood to announce to the world. But even if the dec-
laration in question was actually made, and that too with
all possible solemnity, still it would be difficult to persuade
any thinking man that the sincerity of such a declaration
was in any degree confided in, or that any person in any
country could regard it in any other light than as a mere ar-
tifice, that could give no right which would not equally well
exist without it. Upon the whole, it is manifestly impracti-
cable to rest the decisions of the lords of appeal, in and af-
ter the American war, upon any dependence placed in this
declaration, of which there is no evidence that it ever was
made, which it is certain was not authentically or formally
made ; which, however made, was not, and could not be be-
lieved at any time, far less in 1785 and 1786, when its false-
hood had been unquestionably proved by the public and un-
disguised conduct of its supposed authors, in direct opposi-
tion to it. That Sir James Marriot, who sat in the high
court of admiralty of Great Britain during the greater part
of the late war, did not consider these doctrines as standing
upon this ground is evident ; for, notwithstanding that in
the year 1756 he was the most zealous and perhaps able ad-
vocate for the condemnation of the Dutch ships engaged in
the colony trade of France, yet, upon the breaking out of
the late war, he relied upon the decisions in the American
war as authoritatively settling the legality of that trade, and
decreed accordingly.
If, as a more plausible answer to these decisions, consid-
ered in the light of authorities, than that which we have
just examined, it should be said that they ought rather to
be viewed as reluctant sacrifices to policy, or even to neces-
sity, under circumstances of particular difficulty and peril,
than as an expression of the deliberate opinion of the lords
184 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
of appeal, or of the government of Great Britain ; on the
matter of right, it might perhaps be sufficient to reply, that
if the armed neutrality coupled with the situation of Great
Britain as a party to the war did in any degree compel these
decisions, we might also expect to find at the same era some
relaxation on the part of that country relative to the doc-
trine of contraband, upon which the convention of the armed
neutrality contained the most direct stipulations which the
northern powers were particularly interested to enforce. Yet
such was not the fact. But in addition to this, and other
considerations of a similar description, it is natural to inquire
why it happened that, if the lords of appeal were satisfied
that Great Britain possessed the right in question, they re-
corded and gave to the world a series of decisions against it,
founded not upon British orders of cozmcil, gratuitously re-
laxing what was still asserted to be the strict right (as in the
late war), but upon general principles of public law. How-
ever pnidence might have required (although there is no
reason to believe it did require) an abstinence on the part of
Great Britain, from the extreme exercise of the right she
had been supposed to claim, still it could not be necessary
to give to the mere forbearance of a claim, the stamp and
character of a formal admission that the claim itself was il-
legal and unjust. In the late war, as often as the British
government wished to concede and relax, from whatever mo-
tive, on the subject of the colony trade of her opponents, an
order of council was resorted to, setting forth the nature of
the concession or relaxation upon which the courts of prize
were afterwards to found their sentences ; and, undoubtedly,
sentences so passed, cannot, in any fair reasoning, be consid-
ered as deciding more than that the order of council is oblig-
atory on the courts, whose sentences they are. But the de-
crees of the lords of appeal, in and after the American war,
are not of this description ; since there existed no order of
council on the subject of them ; and of course they are, and
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 185
ought to be, of the highest weight and authority against
Great Britain, on the questions involved in and adjudged by
them.
This solemn reunciation of the principle in question, in
the face of the whole world, by her highest tribunal in mat-
ters of prize, reiterated in a succession of decrees, down to
the year 1786, and afterwards, is powerfully confirmed by
the acquiescence of Great Britain, during the first most im-
portant and active period of the late war, in the free and
unHmited prosecution by neutrals of the whole colony trade
of France ; she did, indeed, at last prohibit that trade by
an instruction unprecedented in the annals of maritime dep-
redation ; but the revival of her discarded rule was charac-
terized by such circumstances of iniquity and violence, as
rather to heighten, by the effect of contrast, the veneration
of mankind for the past justice of her tribimals.
The world has not forgotten the instruction to which we
allude, or the enormities by which its true character was de-
veloped. Produced in mystery, at a moment when universal
confidence in the integrity of her government had brought
upon the ocean a prey of vast value and importance ; sent
abroad to the difterent naval stations, with such studied se-
crecy that it would almost seem to have been intended to
make an experiment how far law and honor could be outraged
by a nation proverbial for respecting both ; the heralds, by
whom it was first announced, were the commanders of her
commissioned cruisers, who at the same instant carried it
into effect with every circumstance of aggravation, if of such
an act there can be an aggravation. Upon such conduct
there was but one sentiment. It was condemned by reason
and justice. It was condemned by that law which flows
from and is founded upon them ; it was condemned, and will
for ever continue to be condemned, by the universal voice of
the civilized world. Great Britain has made amends, -svith
the good faith which belongs to her councils, for that act of
186 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
injustice and oppression ; and your memorialists have a strong
confidence that the late departure from the usual course of
her policy will be followed by a like disi^osition to atonement
and reparation. The relations which subsist between Great
Britain and the United States rest upon the basis of recipro-
cal interests, and your memorialists see in those interests, as
well as in the justice of the British government and the firm-
ness of our own, the best reasons to expect a satisfactory
answer to their complaints, and a speedy abandonment of
that system by which they have been lately harassed and
alarmed.
Your memorialists will not trespass upon your time with
a recital of the various acts by which our coasts, and even
our ports and harbors, have been converted into scenes of
violence and dej^radation ; by which the security of our trade
and property has been impaired ; the rights of our territory
invaded ; the honor of our country humiliated and insulted ;
and our gallant countrymen oppressed and persecuted. They
feel it to be unnecessary to ask that the force of the nation
should be employed in repelling and chastizing the law-
less freebooters who have dared to spread their ravages even
beyond the seas which form the principal theatre of their
piractical exertions, and to infest our shores with their irre-
gular and ferocious hostility.
These are outrages which have pressed themselves in a
peculiar manner upon the notice of our government, and
cannot have failed to excite its indignation, and a correspond-
ent disposition to prevent and redress them.
Such is the view which your memorialists have taken, in
this anxious crisis of our public afiairs, of subjects which ap-
pear to them, in an alarming degree, to afi'ect their country
and its commerce, and to involve high questions of national
honor and interest, of pubHc law and individual rights, wliich
imperiously demand discussion and adjustment. They do
not presume to point out the measures which these great
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 187
subjects may be supposed to call for. The means of redress
for the past and security for the future are respectfully, con-
fidently submitted to your wisdom ; but your memoriahsts
cannot forbear to indulge a hope, which they would aban-
don with deep reluctance, that they may yet be found in
amicable explanations with those who have ventured to in-
flict wrongs upon us, and to advance unjust pretensions to
our prejudice.
Baltimore, Jan. 21st, 1806.
188 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.
FROM MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
[private.] "Londox, October, \Oth 1807.
" Dear Sir : — Mr. Monroe will doubtless sufficiently ex-
plain the subject of this letter ; but it seems, notwithstand-
ing, to be proper that I should trouble you with a very brief
explanation of it myself
" This government having determined to send a special
envoy to the United States upon the subject of Mr. Monroe's
late instructions, and it being probable (although not avowed)
that this envoy would have ulterior powers to treat upon all
the topics which aflect the relations of the two countries,
Mr. Monroe expressed a wish to return without delay to the
United States, and to leave with me the affairs of our coun-
try in quality of Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
So far as respected the business of the ordinary legation,
there was undoubtedly, a difficulty of form, if not of sub-
stance, in the way of its coming into my hands in any other
than the inadmissible character of a mere Charge d' Affaires.
My credentials as Mr. Monroe's successor, expired with the
session of the Senate next following their date, and had not
been renewed ; and my commission as Minister Extraordinary
gave only limited powers for specified objects. It appeared
to be my duty, however, in case it should not be unaccepta-
ble to the British government to communicate with me in
the event of Mr. Monroe's departure, as if I were regularly
accredited as the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States, to consent on my part to such an arrangement, as
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 189
being inore eligible in the present conjuncture than the ap-
pointment of a Charge d' Affaires. Mr, Monroe accordingly
wrote, with my approbation, a note to Mr. Canning to that
effect, to which some personal explanations were added, and
received a reply, of which a copy is inclosed, adopting the
arrangement proposed.
" You wiU perceive that, in lending myself to this step,
I have ventured to infer the approbation of the President
from what certainly does not express it. It would have
been much more agreeable to me tbat a Charge d'Affaii^es
should be left, and that I should remain in my character of
Commissioner Extraordinary until the government of the
United States should have an opportunity of taking its own
course. In that mode I should have been relieved from aU
embarrassment ; but tliinldng that the public interest re-
quu'ed the course actually adopted, and that it was, moreover,
that which was likely to fulfil the expectations of the Presi-
dent, I did not consider myself at liberty to consult my own
inclinations.
" The concluding expressions of Mr. Canning's note af-
ford me an opportunity of saying that, in awaiting here the
orders of the President, I am ready to return or to remain,
as he shall think the interest of our country requires. I beg
you to be assured that as I accepted the trust which called
me abroad with no selfish motive (although I felt how much
I was honored by it), I should regret that any indulgent
feeling towards me should in any degree restrain the Presi-
dent from promoting, in the way he thinks best, that which
I know is the constant object of his care — the general good.
Neither the unfeigned veneration m which I hold his charac-
ter, nor the grateful recollection which I have not for a mo-
ment ceased to cherish of tlie manner in which he has been
60 good as to distinguish me, ■will suffer any abatement,
although he should think fit to place some other than myself
in the station which he once destined for me. I am quite
190 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
sure that whatever shall be done, the manner of it will be
liberal and kind ; and trusting, as I do most confidently,
that I shall carry out of the public service, leave it when I
may, the pure name with which I entered it, and the un-
abated good opinion of the government I have been proud to
serve — the rest is of Httle importance."
In a letter, dated the 21st December, 1807, he says :
" I ought not, perhaps, to have been quite so scrupulous
of writing to you on public affairs during the existence of the
joint mission ; but you will do me the justice to believe that
the scruple Avas sincerely felt, and yielded to frequently with
great reluctance. You will now have reason, perhaps, to
complain of me for writing rather too much than too little.
I shall, however, continue in general to mark my letters
"private," by which their freedom and frequency will be
rendered innocent at least, if they shall not be useful.
" You will find that I have been careful to send you by
every opportunity, newspapers, pamphlets, &c., since Mr.
Monroe's departure ; as indeed I sometimes ventured to do
before. May I beg that those from the United States may
be sent with more regularity ? I ought to remark, that a
pamphlet, favorable to British pretensions, and decrying our
own, is no sooner published in America than it finds its way
across the Atlantic, gets into general circulation here, and is
quoted, praised, and sometimes republished ; whereas those
of an opposite description either do not arrive at all, or come
too late. Some pamphlets, of a most pernicious kind, having
a British character strongly stamped upon them, have lately
been imported from the United States, and advertised for
republication by Enghsh booksellers. I should have been
glad to see the antidote accompan}dng the poison. I am a
sincere friend to peace with all the world, while it can be
preserved with honor : but the strange productions to which
• I allude not only dishonor or betray the cause of our countr}'.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 191
but tendj if read in Great Britain, to produce a temper un-
friendly to accommodation ; and thus, while they inveigh
against war, contribute to produce it. The effect of these
works is greatly assisted by the wonderful ignorance which
has prevailed, and still prevails, among all ranks of people
in Grreat Britain, relative to the reciprocal conduct of France
and the United States towards each other. The President's
message has, for that reason only, been almost universally
misapprehended. Even our best friends have mistaken and
complained of it. In the course of my private intercourse
(as well with the opposition as with the friends of ministers)
I have done all that was consistent with discretion, to give
more correct notions on the subject ; but the press only can
remove completely the prevailing error, and to that expedient
it would be improper that I should have recourse. Some of
the most distinguished men in England, however, have been
referred to General Armstrong's letter to the French Minis-
ter of Marine, and the answer of that Minister, as published
in the American newspapers during the last winter, and to
our convention with France, and may, perhaps, do what I
cannot. Their own newspapers prove in part the practice
(even now) under the French decree of November, 1806 ;
avid it is well known to many persons here (notwithstanding
the general ignorance), that France has never acted, and
does not at this time act, upon the parts of the decree
which might seem intended for external operation, as mari-
time rules.
" There are rumors of a schism in the cabinet (relative
to the Catholics) ; but I am told by a member of the late
administration that it wUl come to nothing."
192 LIFE OF WILLIAM I'INKNEY.
Mil, riNKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
(PmvATi;.) "London, Janunrj/lth, 1808.
" Deah Siu : — I inclose a duplicate of iny i)uUic letter of
the 29tli, and my private letter of the Slst, of last month,
to wliich I am now able to add a e()])y of the French decree
of tlie 2.'id (not, aw I had KUi)[)oMcd, the 25th) of Novem-
ber. Tliis was went to me by a Mr. Mitchell, wlio wa.s pro-
ceedin<^ to the United States (as he writes me) in an Amer-
ican vessel (the Ocean), witli dispatches for you, from C;ieu-
cral A)-mstrong, when the vessel was captured by the Narcis-
sus frigate, and sent into riymouth, upon the ground that
she took in a part of her cargo in France {salt for ballast)
after the day linuted in the last British orders in coimcil. I
have thought it proper to interest myself informally in the
case of this vessel, and 1 have assurance that it shall receive
the promptest attention. 1 have advised Mr. Mitchell to
wait a few days before he detenuines upon taking his passage
in another vessel for America, by whieh he would be Hlcely
to lose time.
" I sent you some (hiys ago a news])aper eontaining tlie
French retaliating decree, dated at Milan, the 25tli uf De-
cend>er. Those whieh are now f(jrwarded contain the same
decree ; and you will iind by the i)ai)ers of this morning that
it has been followed up by another. This country has ventured
upon an extraordinary struggle with France, by which she
has every thing to lose and nothing to gain. The gross im-
policy of the late orders of council (to say nothing of their
insulting tone, and their injustice to neutral states), begins
to develoije itself, and will soon be manifest to all. I am
greatly deceived if it will not in a few weeks be matter of
surprise among all descriptions of people here, that a manu-
facturing and commercial nation like Great Britain, could
LIFE OF WILLIAM PrSKNET. 193
have expected an j tiung but difiaeter and nun fr : : ^
tueasore.
'' Hopes are entertained in England, that oar noo-im-
portati\>Q act will hare been repealed upon the amval of
intelligence of an int<»Kl6d extracffdinaxj luiBsion fixHu thif
oountnr ! That law passed upon unqoestiooable grounds of
pc^CT and justice; and. although it has been heretofore
properlv enspemdt'd, I ^ 'jow our hcMior could fiul to
become a mere shad . . _ . .. ^d now be abandcMied, even
ior a time. The mission of Mr. Boise would not seem to
ju- the siupemsiom of it. until the nature and ex-
teL: . ... : lowers were known ; and after they were known,
it could ju5tii\' nothing. He has no power to arrange on the
topic of unpressment, the great foundation of the iKHwm-
portation act ; and his government has not only reaeserted
its obnoxious pretension on that subject in a public procia-
maticHi, but has even gone the length <^ dedaiing that it
cai. ■ :pair it. The tmredressed outrag<e- ''
Lc' . - - . . afford no inducement to repeal a ™ .
deliberately ])as&ed, with the clear appnc*batic«i of the Amer-
ican pe ; all the motives to it« pa-
angmeuiva i...v. But the ' • Mers -. ^ u>...:: ".aia
make the repeal, or even tht n, of the n<c4i-uupor-
tation act, particulaily tmfortunate. The time when they
were issued — the arrogant claim of maritime dominion, w' ' '
they suppose and execute — and the contempt which :
manifest, in the &ce of the world, for the rights and th<-
power of our country, make them altogether t** -Ten-
ave act that can be laid to the charge of anv _ :.:ent.
The least appearance of a dispoaticm to submit to such an
attempt will encomage to further aggressions, until o'jr na-
tional spirit will be lost in an habitual sense of hir
our character known only to be despised, and our r; .
sidered, like those erf" the petty states of Europe, tiie spwt
and the prev of the strongest. There is an opinion here,
13
194 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
that we are likely to become a divided people, when a rap-
ture with Great Britain is in question ; but this opinion is
founded upon such American publications as those in a Bos-
ton paper, signed " Pacificus," and upon some pamphlets
and private letters of a similar character, and will, undoubt-
edly, be gloriously falsified, if there should be occasion,
by the patriotism of our people in every quarter of the
Union."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR, MADISON.
("Pritate.") "London, April 2oth, 1808,
" Dear Sir : — Mr. Rose has sent me your private letter
of the 21st of March ; for which I am greatly indebted to
you. I know and sincerely regret, the state of your health ;
and therefore beg you not to make any effort (beyond what
may be absolutely necessary for the public service) to write
to me, I will take for granted your good will ; and, if you
will suffer me to do so, will presume upon your esteem. Of
course, I shall not be ready to think myself neglected if I
hear from you but seldom ; and shall not relax in my com-
munications because indisposition, a press of business, or
some other reason, prevents you from giving much attention
to me or my letters. I will only stipulate for an occasional
acknowledgment of them, so that I may know what have
been received and what have been miscarried. I need not
say that as much more as may be consistent with your con-
venience, will be in the highest degree acceptable to me. My
commissions and credentials, have not yet come to hand.
They are perhaps in the Packet, or in the Osage, or in both.
" I feel very sensibly the delicacy and kindness of the
assurances which you are so good as to give me, that the pur-
pose of nominating me to the permanent Legation here was
never for a moment suspended in the mind of the President.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 195
I am the more gratified by this evidence of the continuing
confidence of the President, because I have a firm persua-
sion that he will never have cause to repent it. I beg you
to say for me, to him, that I am truly grateful for this dis-
tinction.
"I inclose another copy of the instruction to British
cruisers, mentioned and inclosed in my last. Having been
confined by indisposition for some days, I cannot yet vouch
that it has actually been issued ; but all information concurs
to make it sufliciently certain. There is something ex-
tremely injudicious in this measure, to say no worse of it. I
do not suppose that we ought to consider it (or rather to ap-
pear to consider it) as offensive to us ; but, undoubtedly, an
attempt, in the face of the world, thus to set the people
against the government and its laws, is an ungracious act,
and rests upon a bad principle. The eftect of this wise con-
trivance in America, can only be, to add to the vigilance of
the government in guarding the law, and to render more
conspicuous the just pride and the public spirit of our citi-
zens, by an open disdain of all foreign allurements to break
it. Such an instruction manifestly reposes upon a foul
libel on our patriotism, and is such a sneer upon our honor,
national and individual, as shoidd give us virtue, if we had
it not before, to resist the temptation which it offers to the
worst of our passions.
" P. S. — I have just received my credentials and your
letter of the 8th of March, by the Packet, and have sent
the customary note to Mr. Canning, requesting an interview
for the purpose of presenting them.
" The incident you mention was not the most fortunate
that could have happened, but I hope it will produce no bad
effect here. I will endeavor to set it to rights without haz-
arding any thing. The freedom with which I hold it to be
my indisputable duty to write to you, renders the delicate
caution which the President uses on such occasions, peculiarly
196 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
proper in my case. But if he should at any time think that
the interests of the state require that j)ubhcity should be
given to any of my dispatches, I do not (because I ought
not to) ask to be spared ; although certainly the publication
of some of them, during my stay in tliis country, would
cause me most serious embarrassment.
" My course will continue to be, to write with candor,
frequency and fidelity, and to throw myself upon the kindness
and wisdom of those to whom ray correspondence belongs,
I shall do so without doubt or fear of any kind."
MR. riNKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
"LoNDOX, April 21 th, 1808.
" Sir : — I have the honor to inform you, that I have this
day had an audience of the King and presented my creden-
tials.
" My reception was particularly kuid and gracious ; and
it is my duty to say, that every evidence, which such an oc-
casion could admit, was afforded, of a desire on the part of
the King to continue in friendship with us."
MR. PINKNEY TO THE PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES.
"London, April 28///, 1808.
" Sir : — I will trespass on you for a few moments only ,
for I have very little to say, and that little might have been
said, with at least equal propriety, through another.
" I thank you, sir, for the fieeHng attention which, with
your accustomed goodness, you have uniformly shown to the
interests of my character, under circumstances which give
to that attention even more than its usual value. I thank
you, especially, for the recent proof which you have thought
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 197
fit to afford me of undiminished confidence, in a season when
that confidence, at all times flattering, does me peculiar
honor.
" Your conduct towards me has been every thing that is
delicate and generous and kind, and I should blush for my-
self, if I did not feel that it had made an impression upon
my heart which neither time nor accident can efface. I en-
treat you to be assured, sir, that it has made such an im-
pression ; and that the veneration in which I have always
held your virtues and your talents will hereafter be accom-
panied and enlivened by gratitude and attachment.
" Will you suffer me to avail myself of this opportunity
to join to the demonstrations of affectionate regret, which
you have received from the different quarters of the Union,
the feeble expression of my own, that your country is about
to lose the benefit of your services in a station, upon which,
although in itself the most exalted to which the virtuous
hopes of a citizen can aspire, your patriotism and wisdom
have reflected lustre. You will indeed, carry with you from
that station all that can give a charm to retirement, the love
and veneration of your fellow-citizens, and an approving con-
science;'but it is natural that he who can so retire, should
be given up with reluctance by the world to the claims of
age or even of constitutional principle."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
("Private.") "Londox, J/ai/ 10?/«, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — I received yesterday, after I had finished
my public dispatch, a letter from Mr. Otto, who went lately
to Holland, and promised while there to give me such intel-
ligence of j)assing events as might be in his power. I inclose
a copy of that letter. It leaves little room to doubt that an
obnoxious decree has been recently issued at Bayonne by the
198 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
French goverDment, reinforcing its former anti-commercial
edicts, and superadding a provision of increased rigor. The
decree itself (of which we had an ambiguous and discredit-
ed rumor some days ago), has not yet found its way to
England.
" I have hardly any thing else worth sayiug to you. A
desire to be friends with us seems now to be almost universal
here, and it may I think be safely assumed that it pervades
the Cabinet. I believe that the King is so disposed. What
will be the practical result of that disposition, with reference
to particular measures and pretensions which touch most
nearly our honor and prosperity, is far more doubtful. The
hostile spirit against France is at its height. Animosity is
exasperated by well-founded alarm; and whatever promises
annoyance on the one hand, or security on the other, may
not easily be yielded to the wish, however strong, to concili-
ate us. The nation is with the government in that respect ;
at least such is the appearance.
" There has been sufficient time for sober reflection, to
enable the most intemperate advocate for war with America
to discover the rashness of his early opinions. The firm at-
titude taken with such proWdent foresight by the govern-
ment of the United States — the combined ojieration of our
embargo, of the other measures of our legislature and execu-
tive, of their own orders iu council, and the French decrees
— the discussions (through the Liverpool papers and others)
by which the vital importance of American connection and
intercourse (and even of that American trade which their
late orders would injudiciously crush) has been demonstrated
to all — the still progressive march of the power of France,
and the new difficulties and perils which, with a persevering
fertility, it j^roduces or threatens — would have created, if it
did not exist before, an anxiety to avoid a rui)ture with us.
But if we continue at peace with France (as, if it be possi-
ble without dishonor, I trust we shall), they will recede here
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 199
on certain points with infinite difficnlty and reluctance, if
they recede at all. They will not go to war if they can help
it ; but it is to be doubted whether they are prepared to do
what may be indispensable to the re-establishment of inter-
rupted friendship. They will be content to leave things as
they are, and to trust to the influence of events ; and a hope
will perhaps be indulged that we cannot persevere in the
embargo — that, weary of our system of self-denial, pressed by
French aggression, and alarmed by the wide-spread domina-
tion and restless ambition of France, we shall at length be
induced to acquiesce in the principles and practices of Great
Britain (which must necessarily produce a contest with her
enemy), or at once to make common cause with her against
that enemy. What is to be the system of France, with re-
gard to us, I know not ; but it is sufficiently obvious that in
the angry struggles of these rival powers, our rights are for-
gotten by both, and that it requires all the tried wisdom
and firmness of our government, and all the virtue of our
people, to conduct us in safety and with honor through the
tempests that agitate and afflict the world.
" My health has suffered a little since my return to Eng-
land, and I am disposed to ascribe it to a continued confine-
ment to London, from which I have not been absent a single
day fur almost two years. I have some thoughts, therefore
(but am by no means determined uj3on it), of going to Cliel-
tenhani, for a short time, after the birthday. I shall in that
case leave a person in my house to attend to all ordinary
business, to forw^ard to me letters, &c.; and shall come to
town myself as occasion may require. My son, who has
hitherto acted as my secretary, I send home in the Osage to
take his station in a counting-house."
200 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET,
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
"LoxDo:^, June 5th, 1808.
" Sir : — I have the honor to aclmowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 4th of April, by Mr. Bethune, together
with the printed, and other copies of Papers mentioned
in it.
" I am to have an interview with Mr. Canning in a few
days (which he wall agree to consider extra-official), in the
course of which I intend to press, by every argument in
my power, the propriety of thcu' abandoning immediately
their orders in council, and of proposing by a minister in
America (the only becoming course, as you very properly
suggest), reparation for the outrage on the Chesapeake. I
shall, for obvious reasons, do this informally as my own act.
" Your unanswerable reply to Mr, Erskinc's letter of the
23d of February, has left nothing to be urged against the
orders in council upon the score of right, and there may be
room to hope that the effect, which that reply can hardly
have failed to produce upon ministers, as well by its tone
as by its reasoning, will, if followed up, become, under ac-
tual circumstances, decisive.
" The discussion, which Mr. Eose's preliminaiy in the af-
fair of the Chesapeake has undergone, gives encouragement
to an expectation, that this government will not now be
backward to relinquish it, and to renew their overture of sat-
isfaction in a way, more consistent with reason, and more
likely to produce a just and honorable result.
'* You may be assured that I will not commit our gov-
ernment by any thing I shall do or say, and that if I cannot
make tilings better than they are, I will not make them
worse. My view of the course which our honor and interests
have required, and still require, is, as you know, in precise
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 201
conformity with that of the President ; but, if it were oth-
erwise, I should make his view, and not my own, the rule of
my conduct."
MK. PINKNEY TO MK. MADISON.
"London, August itfi, 1808.
" Sir : — The St. Michael arrived at Falmouth, on Thurs-
day the 14th of last month, after a passage of 8 days from
L'Orient. Captain Kenyon delivered me on Wednesday, the
20th (upon my arrival from Brighton, where I had been for
a short time, on account of my health), your letters of the
30th of April, and your private letter of the 1st of May,
together with newspapers, printed copies of the embargo
act and its supplements, and of papers laid before Congress
at their last session. Mr. Hall brought me a letter from
General Armstrong of the 26th of June (of which I send
an extract), and Mr. Upson brought me a jDrivate letter
from him, with the following postscript of the 1st of July.
' An order has been received from Bayonne to condemn
eight other of our ships, &c.'
" Oh Friday the 22d of July I had an interview with
Mr. Canning, and renewed my efforts to obtain a revocation
of the British orders of January and November, 1807, and of
the other orders deiDcndent upon them. I have already in-
formed you in my private letter of the 29th of June that
on the morning of its date I had a long conversation with
Mr. Canning, which had rendered it somewhat probable that
the object mentioned in your letter of the 30th of April (of
which I had received a duplicate by the packet) would be
accomplished if I should authorize the expectation which that
letter suggests ; but that some days must elapse before I
could speak with any thing hke certainty on the subject :
and I have mentioned in another private letter (of the 10th
202 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
of July) that it was understood between Mr. Canning and
myself that another interview should take place soon after
the prorogation of Parliament. In effect, however, Mr. Can-
ning was not prepared to see me again until the 22d of July,
after I had been recalled to London by the arrival of the St.
Michael, and had, in consequence, reminded him of our ar-
rangement by a private note.
" In the interview of the 29th of June I soon found it neces-
sary to throw out an intimation, that the power, vested in
the President by Congress, to suspend the embargo act and
its supplements, would be exercised as regarded Great Bri-
tain, if their orders were repealed as regarded the United
States.
" To have urged the revocation upon the mere ground
of strict right, or of general policy, and there to have left
the subject, when I was authorized to place it upon grounds
infinitely stronger, would have been, as it appeared to me, to
stop short of my duty. Your letters to Mr. Erskine (which
Mr. Canning has read and considered) had exhausted the
first of these grounds, and endless discussions here, in every
variety of form, in and out of Parliament, had exhausted the
second. There was, besides, no objection of any force to my
availing myself without delay of the powerful inducements
which the intimation in question was likely to furnish to
Great Britain to abandon her late system ; and it seemed to
be certain that, by delaying to present these inducements to
Mr. Canning's consideration, I should not only lose much
time, but finally give to my conduct a disingenuous air,
which, while it would be foreign to the views and sentiments
of the President, could hardly fail to make a very unfavor-
able impression upon the mind of Mr. Canning and his col-
leagues. I thought, moreover, that, if I should reserve the
suggestion for a late state of our discussions, it would be
made to wear the appearance of a concession rcluctyftitly ex-
torted, rather than of what it was, the spontaneous result of
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 203
the characteristic frankness and honorable policy of our gov-
ernment.
" The intimation once made, a complete development
of its natural consequences, if properly acted upon, followed
of course ; and, taking advantage of the latitude afforded by
the informal nature of a mere conversation, I endeavored to
make that development as strong an appeal as, consistently
with truth and honor, I could (and there was no necessity
to do more) to the justice and the prudence of this govern-
ment. It was not possible, however, that Mr. Canning could
require to be assisted by my explanations. It was plain,
upon their own principles, that they could not equitably
persevere in their orders in council upon the foundation of
an imputed acquiescence on our part in French invasions of
our neutral rights, when it was become (if it was not aliuays)
apparent, that this imputation was completely and in all
respects an error — when it was manifest that these orders,
by letting loose upon our right a more destructive and offen-
sive persecution than it was in the power of France to main-
tain, interposed between us and France, furnished answers
to our remonstrances against her decrees and pretexts for
those decrees, and stood in the way of that very resistance
to these which Great Britain affected to inculcate as a duty
at the moment when she was taking the most efiectual steps
to embarrass and confound it ; and when it was also manifest
that a revocation of those orders would, if not attended or
followed by a revocation of the decrees of France, place us
at issue with that jjower, and result in a precise opposition
by the United States to such parts of her anti-commercial
edicts as it became us to repel.
" In a prudential view any explanations seemed still less
to be required. Nothing could be more clear than that if
Great Britain revoked her orders, and entitled herself to a
suspension of the embargo, her object (if it were any thing
short of the establishment and practical support of an ex-
204 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
elusive dominion over the seas) must, in some mode or other,
be accomplished ; whether France followed her example or
not. In the first case the avowed purpose of the British
orders would be fulfilled, and commerce would resume its ac-
customed prosj)erity and expansion. In the last, the just
resistance of the United States (more efficacious than that of
the British orders) to French irregularities and aggressions,
would be left to its fair operation (of which it was impos-
sible to mistake the consequences), and in the mean time
the commercial intercourse between the United States and
Great Britain, being revived, would open the way for a
return to good understanding, and in the end for an adjust-
ment of all their diiferences.
" These, and many other reflections of a similiar tendency
(which I forbear to repeat), could not have escaped the pene-
tration of Mr. Canning, if they had not been suggested to
him in considerable detail. But, whatever might be their
influence upon his mind, he certainly did not pronounce any
opinion ; and what he said consisted principally of inquiries
with a view to a more accurate comprehension of my i)urpose.
He asked if I thought of taking a more formal course than
I was now pursuing ; but immediately remarked that he jire-
sumed I did not ; for that the course I had adopted was un-
doubtedly well suited to the occasion. I told him that I
was so entirely persuaded that the freedom of conversation
was so much better adapted to the nature of our subject and
so much more likely to conduct us to a beneficial result than
the constraint and formality of written communication,
which usually grew into protracted discussion and always
produced embarrassment when there was any thing of deli-
cacy in the topics, that I had not intended to present my note.
" The interview (in the progi'ess of which some other
points were incidentally touched upon, as mentioned in ray
private letter of the 29th of June) did not authorize any very
confident opinion that Mr. Canning approved of what had
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 205
noiu for the first time been suggested to him ; and still less
could it warrant any anticipation of the final opinion of his
government. But the manner in which my communication
was received, and the readiness shown by Mr. Canning to
proceed in the mode which was peculiarly favorable to my
object, connected with the reasonableness of the object itself,
induced me to think it rather probable that the issue would
be satisfactory.
" The interview of the 22d of July was far from producing
any thing of an unpromising complexion. I urged again
much of what had been said at the last conference, and sue:-
gested such further considerations as had since occurred to
me in support of my demand. Mr. Canning was still much
more reserved than I had hoped to find him after so much
time had been taken for deliberation ; but from all that
passed I was more than ever inchned to believe that the
orders would be relinquished. He seemed now to be ex-
tremely desirous of ascertaining whether I was authorized
and disposed, with a view to a final arrangement, to present
what I had suggested, as to the suspension of the embargo,
in a more precise shape. I told him, after some conversation
upon this point, that, although I would prefer that course
which was the least formal, yet, if every thing should be first
matured, I might be able to combine witha written demand,
that their orders would be repealed, such an assurance as I
had already mentioned, that the embargo would be suspend-
ed, but that I would consider of this with reference to the
manner and terms. He then observed that I would perhaps
allow him a little time to reflect whether he would put me
to the necessity of presenting such a paper, and, upon my
assenting to this, he said that he would give me another ap-
pointment towards the end of the following week. As I was
on the point of leaving him, he asked me if I would endeavor
to prepare, before the next intemew such a note as we had
talked of ; but he had scarcely made this request before he
206 . LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
added ' but you will doubtless desire first to know what are
our ideas and intentions upon the whole subject.'
" On the 29th of July I met Mr. Canning again ; and
was soon apprised that our discussions, if continued, must
take a new form. He began by inquiring if I had received
any intelligence of a late afi'air upon the Lakes which had
caused great alarm and anxiety among the British traders,
and of which an account had just been put into his hands.
He then read very rapidly, from a letter apparently written
in Canada, a complaint of an attack upon some British boats
in violation of the 3d article of the Treaty of 1794, and ob-
served that this was the more to be regretted, as it followed
some recent misunderstanding in the Bay of Passamaquoddy.
I told him that I had no intelligence, official or private, of
these transactions, which he would perceive took place upon
our borders at a great distance from the seat of government,
and that of course, I could only express my conviction that
the government of the United States would disavow whatever
was improper in the conduct of its agents, and would in other
respects act as good faith and honor required. This aftair
being disposed of, Mr, Canning said that he had thought long
and anxiously upon what I had suggested to him at our late
conferences — that the subject at first struck him as much
more simple and free from difficulty than upon careful ex-
amination it was found to be — that in the actual state of the
world it behooved both him and me to move in this afiair with
every possible degree of circumspection (an intimation which
he did not explain) — that without some exijlicit proposal on
my part in writing ujDon Avhich the British government could
deliberate and act, nothing could be done ; and, finally, that
he must leave me to consult my own discretion whether I
would make such a proposal. I answered that, with such a
previous understanding between us as I had counted upon, I
should feel no objection to take occasion to say in an official
note requiring the revocation of their orders in council, that,
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 207
the orders being rescinded as to us, it was the intention of
the President to suspend the embargo as to Great Britain ;
but that I expected to be told, before my note was presented,
what would be the reply to it, and what its consequences in
every direction ; and that I could not conjecture, if it was
really meant to acquiesce in my demand (the exact nature
of it being in point of fact understood by this government
just as well as if it had been made in writing), or if more
time than had already been afforded was required for deli-
beration, why it was necessary that I should, in the last case
take the step in question at all, or, in the first case, without
being frankly apprised of the effect it would produce. Mr,
Canning replied that my wish in this particular could not be
acceded to ; that, if I presented a note, they must be left at
perfect liberty to decide uj)on what it jDroposed ; that he
could not give me an intimation of the probable consequences
of it ; and in a word, that he would neither invite nor dis-
courage such a proceeding. He observed, too, that there
were some points belonging to the subject which it was neces-
sary to discuss in writing ; that my suggestion implied that
the embargo was produced by the British orders in council —
that this could not be admitted — and that there were other
questions necessarily incident to these two measures with the
examination of which it was proper to begin upon an occasion
like the present. I remarked in answer that, with an actual
result in view, and with a wish to arrive at that result with-
out delay, nothing could be worse imagined than to entangle
ourselves in a written correspondence, undefined as to its
scope and duration, upon topics on which we were not likely
to agree ; that if I were compelled to frame my note with a
knowledge that it was onhj to provoke argument, instead of
leading at this momentous crisis to a salutary change in the
state of the world, he must be conscious that I too must
argue, and that I could not justify it to my government to
abstain from a complete assertion of all its pretensions and a
208 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKKEY.
full exi^osure of the true character of those acts of which it
complained as illegal and unjust. And where would this
end ? To what wholesome consequence could it lead ?
" I ought to mention that I give you in this letter the
substance only of the conversations which it states, and that
there was nothing in any degree unfriendly in the language
or manner of Mr. Canning at either of our conferences. I
need not say that I thought it my duty to adopt the same
tone and manner."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
"London, Sept. 6th, 1808.
" Sir : — I have an opportunity of writing by Mr. Bethune,
who leaves town to-morrow for Falmouth, to embark for the
United States in the British packet ; and I cannot omit to
take advantage of it, although I have still nothing conclusive
to communicate. •
" My public letter of the 4th of August will have ap-
prised you of the footing on which my different interviews
with Mr. Canning left the subject of the Britisli orders in
council ; and my private letter of the 2d of that month will
have made you acquainted with my intention to present,
in an official note, what I had ineffectually suggested in
conference.
" To such a course there could not, even in the first in-
stance, have been any other objection than that it was cal-
culated to lead to discussion rather than to adjustment ; but,
whatever might be its tendency, it is certain that I could
have no inducement to resort to it until it was indicated by
Mr. Canning as indispensable, nor any motive to decline it
afterwards.
" At our last interview, and not before, it was unexpect-
edly found that it was in that mode only that I could obtain
LIFE OF •WILLIAM PINKNEY. 209
a knowledge of the light in which this government thought
fit to view the overture I had been directed to make to it ;
and I determined, in consequence, to lay before it in writing
the intentions of the President, with the same frankness
which had characterized my verbal communications.
" I have now the honor to transmit a copy of the note,
which, in conformity with that determination, I dehvered in
person to Mr. Canning, on the 26 th of last month, a few days
after its date. To this note no answer has yet been returned :
but it is to be presumed that it cannot be much longer with-
held.
" You will perceive that some time had elapsed, after I
had sent off my dispatches by the St. Michael (the 8th of
August), before my note was presented. The truth is, that
I had employed a part of that time in framing a note of
great length, which, when it was nearly completed, I thought
it prudent to abandon, in favor of one that held out fewer
invitations to unprofitable discussions, which, although I
would not shun them if pressed upon me, I did not suppose
it proper that I should seek.
" I believed, too, that a little delay on my part would be
far from being disadvantageous. There would still be sufficient
time for obtaining a final answer to my proposal, in season for
the meeting of Congress ; and, as the temper of the govern-
ment, so far as it had been tried, had not appeared to be fa-
vorable to my purpose, I believed that I should act in the
spirit of my instructions, and consult the honor of my gov-
ernment, by avoiding, under such circumstances, the appear-
ance of urgency and precipitation.
" Upon the terms, or general plan of my note it is not,
I hope, necessary to remark. You will discover that it was
prepared under a persuasion that, whatever might be its ef-
fect, it was infinitely better to make it as concihatory as,
without a sacrifice of principle or national dignity, was pos-
sible.
14
210 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
" The topics to be embraced by it, were sucli as did not
demand, but rather forbade, minute exposition. While it
was difficult to urge in theu' full force without seeming to
aim at exciting a disjiosition unfriendly to the object of my
instructions, all the considerations which justified the United
States in remonstrating against the Britisli orders, it vas yet
more difficult, without a degree of harshness scarcely suited
to the occasion, and without also the hazard of indiscretion,
to display in detail the signal injustice and impolicy of per-
severing in them, after what I had proposed. This could be
done, and had been done, in conversation ; but it did not,
upon trial, appear to be equally practicable in the more for-
mal and measured proceeding which I was now called upon
to adopt.
" I considered, besides, that an overture so advantageous
to Great Britain, which the United States were not bound to
make to any obligations of equity, although it was wise to
make it, did not require, with any view to the character of
my country, or even to the success of the overture itself, to
be again recommended by an anxious repetition of arguments
already fully understood.
" As soon as my note was prepared, I called at the For-
eign office to arrange an interview with Mr. Canning, for the
purpose of enabling me to accompany the delivery of it with
a communication which I deemed important, as well as of
affording him an opportunity of making and receiving such
explanations as he might desire. The interview took place
on the 26th of August.
" It had occurred to me that it would be proper ( and
could not be injurious) to read to Mr. Canning, from your
letter to me of the 18th of July, a brief summary of the in-
structions under which I was acting. This had not been re-
quested ; but it could not be unacceptable ; and it was, be-
sides, well calculated to do justice to the liberal sentiments
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET, 211
by which my instructions had been dictated, as well as to give
weight to my efforts in the execution of them.
" I was led by the reading of these passages (without
having originally intended it), into a more extensive
explanation than I had before attempted, of the influ-
ence which the proposal of my government would have, in
truth as well as in the judgment of the world, upon the sup-
posed justice of their new system as it affected the United
States. To that explanation, with the particulars of which
I will not, and indeed for want of time cannot, at present,
trouble you, I added a concise recapitulation of some of the
practical considerations which had been so often pressed be-
fore ; and there I left the subject.
" Mr. Canning paid great attention to what I said. He
spoke, however, of the attack on the Chesapeake and of the
President's proclamation, and asked what was to be done
with them ? I stated that these two subjects were wholly
distinct from the present, but that it was not to be doubted
that if the atonement which the United States were authorized
to expect, for that admitted outrage upon their sovereignty,
were offered in a suitable manner (which I ventured to sug-
gest would be a special mission), it would not be difficult to
bring the two governments to a proper understanding on these
points — that, as it was fit that the British overture of satis-
faction should be renewed in America, and not through me,
I could not hope to be the immediate agent in receiving it ;
but that I should be happy to contribute informally every as-
sistance in my power to facilitate an adjustment, so much to
be desired, upon such terms as it became them to offer and us
to accept. Mr. Canning observed, ' that there was a diffi-
culty in setting about the adjustment,' and he repeated what
he said in our conference of the 29th of June (as mentioned
in my private letter on that date), that there would be no
objection to restoring the men taken from the Chesapeake ;
but he did not say what other reparation they were willing
212 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
to propose. I considered myself at liberty to encourge a dis-
position, which I thought I perceived in him, to move in that
interesting affair, in such a manner as to promise a satisfac-
tory conclusion of it, and I acted accordingly ; but nothing
passed which could justify me in undertaking to anticipate
the result.
" At the close of the interview I told Mr. Canning that
although I would not be understood to urge an answer to my
note sooner than was consistent with his convenience, I could
not help asking that it might be as prompt as possible. He
assured me that there should be no unnecessary delay ; and I
took my leave.
" As I have no sufficient gi'ounds, upon which to form an
opinion as to the final course of the British government on
this occasion, I will not fatigue you with mere conjectures.
I have seen Mr. Canning but once (at dinner at his own
house), since the interview of the 26th of August ; and such
an occasion was not suited to official approaches on my part.
A few days, however, will decide what is now perhaps doubt-
ful. In the mean time the Hope will probably have arrived,
on her return from France ; and I will take care that by her,
and by other opportunities, you shall receive the speediest
information.
" I beg leave to refer to the newspapers herewith sent for
an account of the important events which have lately occur-
red in Europe."
MR, PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
("Private.) London, Sept. lih, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — As Mr. Bethune leaves town in a few hours,
I have only time to write a short private letter in addition
to my public one of yesterday.
" Mr. Atwater delivered your private letter of the 21st
of July, and a duplicate of that of the 15th, and I received
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 213
by Mr. Nicolson, on the 24th of last month, your private
letters of the 3d and 15th of July.
" I cannot subdue my opinion that the overture on the
subject of the orders in councd will be either rejected or
evaded. What infatuation, if it be so !
, " That the embargo pinches here is certain. There is
undoubtedly room for alarm on the score of provisions ; and
it is confessed that they feel severely the want of our trade.
The effect, however, is less than it ought to have been, on
account of the numerous evasions of the embargo, and the
belief (encouraged in America) that we had not virtue to
persist in it. Should it be continued it must be rigorously
executed, and our vessels in Europe recalled,
" I send you Marriott's book, entitled " Hints to both Par-
ties." Towards the end you will find a pretty open avowal
that even if France should retract her decrees, Great Britain
ought to hold on upon the substance of her orders, making
them only more j^cdafahle to us in some of their subordinate
provisions. This gentleman is a West India merchant, and
a member of Parliament ; and was consulted by ministers
when the orders of November were in contemplation.
" It is still believed here that the late events in Spain
and Portugal, connected with the British explanations (al-
ready forwarded in my private letter of the 17th of August,
and now again transmitted) relative to a direct trade be-
tween the United States and those countries, will have an
irresistible effect on our embargo. They are so misled in
this country as to suppose that the embargo has already
produced very formidable discontent in America, and I am
mistaken if the government has not been inclined to cal-
culate upon that discontent in various ways, and at
least to give it a trial. But, at any rate, the Spanish and
Portuguese trade wUl, it is imagined, be too great a temp-
tation to be withstood. I know not what we may think of
this temptation in America, — but it will be well to reflect
214 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKKEY.
that, if we trade under the British orders and go to war
with France (as this speculation supposes) while the British
orders continue, we not only retreat from the honorable
ground we have taken, and admit the right of Great Britain
to act at all times upon her new system, to the utter ex-
tinction of our commerce, but deliver ourselves up to her
mercy in all respects. What would be her course in that
resjject I know not ; but is there any reason to believe it
would be generous or even just ? We should, I incline to
think, be in danger of falling into a dependence upon this
country fatal to our character, to our institutions, to our
navigation, to our strength — and what could we hope to
gain ? I profess I am not able to imagine.
" Since the change in Spain and Portugal this nation is
not exactly what it was ; and it may be presumed that the
government partakes of the universal exaltation. Their
dreams of future prosperity are bright and romantic. A
Chateau en Espaejne has become quite common. I have
heard it suggested (as a course of reasoning not unusual
here among merchants and others) that South America,
whether dependent or independent, must be thrown com-
mercially into the arms of Great Britain, — that, encouraged
to exertion and roused to activity by a new order of things, she
will hereafter rival us in all the great agricultural produc-
tions of our country — that, under a system friendly to the
development of their resources, our southern neighbors
will even surpass us as cultivators — that Great Britain will
thus become wholly independent of the United States for ar-
ticles which she has heretofore been obliged to take from
them, and in a great degree too, for the consumption of her
manufactures — that in other views our importance will be
greatly diminished, if not absolutely annihilated, by this
new competition — that this result, almost inevitable in any
view, is more especially to be counted upon if Great Britain,
compelled by the policy of our government, or following the
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 215
impulse of the jealousy which is imputed to her, should
foster (by her capital and her trade), to the full extent of her
capacity, the prosperity of the south, in contradistinction to
that of the north — that the change in Spain is otherwise
likely to enable Great Britain to hold towards the United
States a higher tone than formerly — that the Spanish depu-
ties here (I doubt this fact), and those who are in the new
Spanish interest (this I believe true), begin to talk already
of our Louisiana purchase as unfit to be submitted to —
that regenerated Spain will certainly question the validity of
the cession that preceded our purchase, and reclaim the territo-
ry alienated by it — that this and other causes of dissatisfaction
(aided by the sentiment of gratitude and the considerations
of interest which bind the Sjianiards to Great Britain) may
be easily fomented into a quarrel with the United States, of
which the consequences (Great Britain being a party also)
may be most destructive.
" These rhapsodies (which may, however, be worthy of
some attention) show how enthusiasm and prejudice can cal-
culate ! Spain, assailed by the whole power of France, has
already leisure for an American quarrel, and can even spare
troops to recover a superfluous territory on the Mississippi !
The inveterate habits and pursuits of a whole people, iu
another hemisphere, are, against the repulsion of still exist-
ing causes, to pass to opposite extremes in consequence of a
revolution in Europe yet in its earliest infancy, and of which
the transatlantic effect (even if in Europe the revolution were
established) would be a problem ! Great Britain, with a
vast increase of debt, is to find her account in casting from
her our market for her manufactures, in rejecting our com-
modities essential to her colonies and convenient to herself,
for the purpose of patronizing a country, on the permanency
of whose connection she cannot rely, many of whose produc-
tions come iu competition with those of her own colonies, and
in which the passage from the actual state of things to that
216 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
which is contemplated, must be rekictant and slow, and lia-
ble to endless interruptions and relapses ! It is forgotten,
too, that this interesting section of the globe during all this
tedious and doubtful process, may and must contribute to
nourish our growth, while it can scarcely rival us in any
thing. It is forgotten that, if it continues to lean upon the
parent state, it is not likely, under the pressure of colonial
restrictions, to flourish to our prejudice or even to flourish at
all, but may serve to strengthen and enrich us ; and that, if
it becomes independent, after our example, it will be far
more natural that we should benefit and reflect lustre and
power upon each other, than that Great Britain should find
in the south tlie means of humbling the other branches of the
great family of the west.
"From the newspapers it would seem that France and
Austria are on the eve of war. Yet I have been told that it
is not so. It is, I believe, certain that France has changed her
tone (from haughtiujss and menace to conciliation) towards
Austria, since the discomfitures in S^Dain. This is not con-
clusive proof, however.
" The report that Lucien Bonaparte has requested of a
British minister a passport to go to America is, I understand
from a very respectable quarter, true.
" The result of our elections will now soon be known. I
trust they will be favorable to the measures of our govern-
ment. I need not say how sincerely and anxiously I wish
that, with reference to yourself personally, they may give
you all the honor which the suifrages of our people can
bestow,"
MR. PINKNEY TO MB. MAWSON.
("Private.) London, Sept. lOih, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — I intended to have inclosed in my private
letter of the 7th by Mr. Bethune, who left town on the even-
ing of that day for Falmouth, to embark in the British
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 217
packet, a triplicate of my public letter of tlie 4tli of August,
but in my hurry I omitted it. I transmit it now by Mr.
Youno;, our consul at Madrid, who is about to sail from
Gravesend for New- York, and I beg to renew my request
that the slight variations from the original and duplicate,
which jou will find in the hue marked in the margin with a
pencil, may be adopted. The only one of these corrections,
however, about which I am in the least anxious, is in the
fourth paragraph from the end, which in my rough draft
reads thus, " at the close of the intervieio, I observed, that,
as the footing upon which this intervieio has, &c." This
awkward iteration of the word intervieio (if not actually
avoided in the original and duplicate, as perhaps it is) I
really wish corrected.
" Mr. Canning's reply to my note not making its appear-
ance, I went tliis morning to Downing-street to inquire about
it ; but both Mr. Canning and Mr. Hammond were in the
country. I shall not omit to press for the answer (without,
however, giving unnecessary offence) until I obtain it, or
have the delay explained. It is possible that, when received,
it may be found to adopt our proposal, and that they are
merely taking time to connect with their compliance a long
vindication of their orders. This is one way of accounting
for the delay.
"It is also possible that they are actually undecided,
and that they wish to procrastinate and keep back their an-
swer until they can understand by the British packet (ex-
pected very soon) the workings of the embargo, and of the
Spanish views in America ; until they can take measure of
our elections ; until they can ascertain what is to be the
course of France towards us ; until the state of Europe, so
flattering to their hopes, shall improve yet more, or at any
rate be past the danger of a relapse, &c., &c. All this is
possible ; but I continue to think that they will reject what
I have proposed. Their present elevation is exactly calcu-
218 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY.
latecl (aided by false estimates of America) to mislead them
to such a conckision. They are hardly in a temper of mind
to ajipreciate the motives of the President's conduct. The
chances are that they wiU ascribe the assurances I have been
authorized to give them, as to the embargo law, to a mere
anxiety to get rid of that law ; and that they will only see
in those assurances a pledge that we are heartily tired of oui"
actual position, and are ready to abandon it at any rate
They will be apt, in a word, to presume (believing, as I am
sure they do, that we will not venture upon extremities with
them) that, by holding off, they will compel us to retract
our late measures (the most wise and honorable ever adopted
by a government), and to fall at their feet. You must not
be surprised if they should be found to expect even more
than this from the pressure of the embargo. I allude to the
influence which many hope it will have upon our elections,
in bringing about a change of men as well as of measures.
In this I trust they will be signally disappointed.
" If (party spirit out of the question) the conduct of our
government towards the two powers that keep the world in
an uproar with their quarrel, has been really disapproved in
the United States, the overture just made to both cannot
fail to subdue it. I anticipate from it a perfect union of
sentiment in favor of any attitude which it may be necessary
to take. It puts us so unequivocally in the right, that,
although we were not, I think, bound to make it, it is im-
possible not to rejoice that it has been made. In any event
it must be salutary and must do us honor. The overture,
however, would seem to be more advantageous to Great
Britain than France. For if you should take off the embargo
as to France and continue it as to Great Britain, your pro-
ceeding would have little substance in it, considered as a
benefit to France, unless and until you ivcnt to tvar against
Ch'eat Britain. But the converse of this would have a vast
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 219
effect in favor of Great Britain, whetlier you went to war
with France or not.
" It does not follow, and certainly is not true, that the
overture is for that reason unjust to France ; although I
think it the clearest case in the world that Great Britain is
(at least) in pari delicto with France on the subject of that
code of violence which drives neutrals from the seas and
justice from the world.
" It is said here, by those who affect to know, that a con-
ciliatory conduct by France toward the United States wiU
not be acceptable to this government ; and certainly Mar-
riott's book affords some reason for susxaicion that a repeal
of the French decrees would not be followed by that of the
British orders. Such infatuation is scarcely credible, yet it
would not be much worse than their present backwardness
to avail themselves of what has lately been said to them.
"After all, it will be safest (for a time longer) to keep
opinion as much as possible in suspense — and I need not re-
peat my assurances that the moment I receive the informa-
tion I am expecting, no effort shall be spared to put you in
possession of it."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
(" Pritate.) Loxdox, Sept. 21sf, 1808.
" Dear Sir : — The Hope arrived at Cowes from France
the 13tli.
" Not having heard from Mr. Canning, although he
returned to London the 16th, I called again yesterday at
Downing-street, and was assured that the answer to my note
would be sent to night or early to-morrow morning. Mr.
Atwater will of course be able to leave town on Friday, and
embark on Saturday with a copy of it.
" I have been told since the arrival of the last British
packet (but do not believe it), that there is more probability
than I had anticipated, that the late events in Spain and
220 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINe!nEY.
Portugal (wliich ought not to be considered as deciding on
any thing) will have an effect on public opinion in America
against the continuance of the embargo, and favorable to all
the purposes of Great Britain, If this were true, I should
think it was deeply to be lamented. I may misunderstand
the subject ; but I cannot persuade myself that any thing
that has happened on this side of the Atlantic, ought to in-
duce us in any degree to retreat from our present system.
" If we should resolve to trade with Spain and Portugal
(Great Britain and France persisting in their orders and de-
crees) in any way to which Great Britain would not object,
we must suspend the embargo as to those countries only or
as to those countries and Great Briiain, or we must repeal
it altogether.
" The temptation to the first of these courses, is, even
in a commercial sense, inconsiderable ; the objection to it
endless. The object to be gained (if no more was gained
than ought to be gained) would be trifling. There could
indeed be no gain. An inadequate market redundantly sup-
plied would be more injurious than no market at all ; it would
be a lure to destruction, and nothing more. A suspension of
the embargo, so limited in its nature as this would be (sup-
posing it to be in fact what it would be in form), would have
a most unequal and invidious operation in the different quar-
ters of the Union, of which the various commodities would
not in the ports of Portugal and Spain be in equal demand.
" A war with France would be inevitable ; and such a
war (so produced), from wluch we could not hope to derive
either honor or advantage, would place us at the mercy of
Great Britain, and, on that account, would in the end do
more to cripple and humble us than any disaster that could
otherwise befall us.
" The actual state of Spain and Portugal is moreover not
to be relied upon. My first opinion on that subject remains;
but even the most sanguine will admit that there is great
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 221
room for doubt. The Emperor of France is evidently col-
lecting a mighty force for the reduction of Spain ; and Por-
tugal must share its fate. And even if that force should be
destined (as some suppose) first to contend with Austria, the
speedy subjugation of Spain is not the less certain. If
France should succeed, Spain and Portugal would again fall
under the British orders of November, as well as under the
operation of the French decrees. Our cargoes would scarcely
have found theiv way to the ocean in search of the boasted
market, before they would be once more in a state of prohi-
bition, and we should, in the mean time, have incurred the
scandal of suffering an improvident thirst of gain to seduce
us from our principles into a dilemma presenting no alterna-
tive but loss in all the senses of the word.
" But it is not event certain what G-reat Britain would
herself finally say to such a partial suspension of the embargo.
She would doubtless at first approve of it. But her ultimate
course (especially if war between France and the United
States were not the immediate consequence, or if the mea-
sure were eventually less beneficial to herself than might be
supposed at the outset), ought not to be trusted. That she
should approve at first, is hardly to be questioned, and the
considerations upon which she would do so, are precisely
those which should dissuade us from it. Some of these are —
the aid it would afford to her alhes, as well as to her own
troops co-operating with them, and its consequent tendency
to destroy every thing like system in our conduct — its ten-
dency to embroil us with France, its tendency to induce us,
by overstocking a limited market, to make our commodities
of no value — to dissipate our capital — to ruin our merchants
without benefiting our agricidture — to destroy our infant
manufactures without benefiting our commerce — its tendency
to habituate us to a trammelled trade, and to fit us for ac-
quiescence in maritime despotism. But there are other
reasons — our trade with Spain and Portugal, while it lasted,
222 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKXET.
would be a circuitous one with Chreat Britain and her colo^
nies, for their benefit. Our productions would be carried in
the first instance to Spain and Portugal, would be bought
thep for British account, and would find their way to the
;West Indies or centre here, as British convenience might re-
(juire, and thus in effect the embargo be removed as to Great
Britain, wliile it continued as to France, and we professed to
continue it as to both. And if any profits should arise from
this sordid traffic, they would become a fund, to enable us to
import into the United States directly or indirectly the
manufactures of Great Britain, and thus relieve her in an-
other way, while her orders woukl jirevent us from receiving
the commodities of her enemy. It would be far better openly
to take off" the embargo as to Great Britain, than while
affecting to continue it as to that power, to do what must
rescue her completely (and that too without advantage to
ourselves) from the pressure of it, art the same time that it
would promote her views against France in Portugal and
Spain.
" As to the withdrawing the embargo as to Great Britain,
as well as Spain and Portugal, while the British orders are
unrepealed, the objections to that course are just as strong now
as they were four months ago. The change in Spain and
Portugal (if it were even likely to last) cannot touch the
principle of the embargo, as regards Great Britain, who re-
asserts her orders of November, in the very explanations of
the 4th of July, under which we must trade with those
countries, if we trade witli them at all. If we include Great
Britain in the suspension, and exclude France, we do now
what we have declined to do before, for the sake of a delu-
sive commerce, which may perish before it can be enjoyed,
and cannot in any event be enjoyed with credit, with advan-
tage, or even with safety. We take part at once with Great
Britain against France, at a time the least suited that could
be imagined to such a determination ; at a time when it
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 223
might be said we were emboldened by French reverses, to do
what before we could not resolve upon, or even tempted by
a prospect of scanty profit^ exaggerated by our cupidity and
impatience to forget what was due to consistency, to charac-
ter, and permanent prosj)erity. We sanction too the mari-
time pretensions which insult and injure us ; we throw our-
selves, bound hand and foot, upon the generosity of a gov-
ernment that has hitherto refused us justice ; and all this
when the affair of the Chesapeake, and a host of other
wrongs, are unredressed, and when Great Britain has just
rejected an overture which she must have accepted with
eagerness if her views were not such as it became us to sus-
pect and guard against.
" To repeal the embargo altogether wotdd be preferable
to either of the other courses, but would notwithstanding be
so fatal to us in all respects, that we should long feel the
wound it would inflict, unless indeed some other expedient,
as strong at least and as efficacious in all it bearings, can (as
I fear it cannot) be substituted in its place.
" War would seem to be the unavoidable result of such
a step. If our commerce should not flourish in consequence
of this measure, nothing would be gained by it but dishonor ;
and how it could be carried on to any valuable purpose, it
would be difficult to show. If our commerce sliould flourish
in spite of French and British edicts, and the miserable
state of the world ; in spite of war with France, if that
should happen, it would, I doubt not, be assailed in some
other form. The spirit of monopoly has seized the people
and government of this country. We shall not under any
circumstances be tolerated as rivals in navigation and trade
— it is in vain to hope that Great Britain will voluntarily
foster the naval means of the United States. All her prej-
udices— all her calculations are against it. Even as allies
we shoidd be subjects of jealousy. It would be endless to
enumerate in detail the evils whicli would cling to us in this
224 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
new career of vassalage and meanness, and tedious to pursue
pur backward course to the extinction of that very trade to
which we had sacrificed every thing else. *
" On the other hand, if we persevere we must gain our
purpose at last. By complying with the little policy of the
moment, we shall be lost. By a great and systematic adhe-
rence to principle we shall find the end to our difficulties.
The embargo and the loss of our trade are deeply felt here,
and will be felt with more severity every day. The wheat
harvest is like to be alarmingly short, and the state of the
continent will augment the evil. The discontents among
their manufactures are only quieted for the moment by tem-
porary causes. Cotton is rising, and soon will be scarce.
Unfavorable events on the continent will subdue the temper
unfriendly to wisdom and justice which now prevails here.
But above all, the world will, I trust, be convinced that our
firmness is not to be shaken — our measures have not been
without efiect. They have not been decisive, because we
have not been thought cajjable of ijcrsevering in self-denial,
if that can be called self-denial which is no more than pru-
dent abstinence from destruction and dishonor.
" I ought to mention that I have been told by a most
respectable American merchant here, that large quantities
of such woollen cloths as are prohibited by our non-importa-
tion act, have been and continue to be sent to Canada, with
the view of being smuggled into the United States.
" I beg you to excuse the frequency and length of my
private letters.
" I need not tell you that I am induced to trouble you
with my hasty reflections, because I think you stand in need
of them. I give them merely because I believe that you
are entitled to know the impressions which a public servant
on this side of the water receives from a view of our situa-
tion."
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 225
MR. PINKNEY TO ME. MADISON.
" London, September 24th, 1808.
" Sir : — I am now enabled to transmit to you a copy of
Mr. Canning's answer, received only last night,. to my note
of the 23d of August.
" Tliis answer was accompanied by a letter, of which also
a copy is inclosed, recapitulating what Mr. Canning sup-
poses to be ' the substance of what has passed between us
at our several interviews, previous to the j)resentation of my
official letter.'
" To the accompanjnng paper I think it indispensable
that I should reply without delay, supporting, with polite-
ness, but with firmness, the statements which I have already
had the honor to make to you of the conversations in question,
and correcting some errors upon points which Mr. Canning
has thought fit to introduce into his letter, but which I had
not supposed it necessary to mention in detail in my dis-
patches.
" I shall not detain Mr. Atwater with a view to this re-
ply ; but will take care to forward a copy of it by an early
conveyance. My official note and the answer to it being
perfectly intelligible, Mr. Canning's misapprehensions (for
such they are) of previous verbal communications, can
scarcely be very important in a pubKc view ; but it is, ne-
vertheless, of some consequence that whatever may be the
objeet of his statement, I should not make myself a party to
its inaccuracies, by even a tacit admission of them.
"I do not perceive that a formal reply to the more
official paper, can now be of any advantage ; but I shall
probably take occasion to conabine with my reply to the one
paper some observations upon the other,
" I regret extremely, that the views which I have been
instructed to lay before this government have not been met
by it as I had at first been led to expect. The overture can-
15
226 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
not fail, however, to place in a strong light the just and libe-
ral sentiments by which our government is animated, and in
other respects to be useful and honorable to our country."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
" London, November 25th, 1 808.
" Sir : — I have the honor to send inclosed a copy of a let-
ter, received last night, from Mr, Canning, in answer to my
letter to him of the 10th of last month.
" The tone of this letter renders it impossible to reply to
it with a view to a discussion of what it contains, although
it is not without further inadvertencies as to facts, and ma-
ny of the observations are open to exception. I intend, how-
ever, to combine ^vith an acknowledgment of the receipt of it
two short explanations. The first will relate to the new and
extraordinary conjecture, which it intimates, that my au-
thority was contingent ; and the second will remind Mr.
Canning that my letter of the 10th of October does not, as
he imagines, leave unexplained the remark that, " the 2jro-
visional nature of my offer, to make my proposal in writing,
arose out of circumstances; " but, on the contrary, that " the
explanation immediately follows the remark."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
"London, December 24th, 1808.
Sir : — I have had the honor to receive, by the British
packet, your letters of the 9th and 10th of last month.
The assurance contained in the first of these letters, of
the President's approbation of the manner in which my late
instructions were executed, afibrds me the most lively eatis-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 227
faction ; and I beg you to accept my sincere thanks for the
kind and flattering terms in which you have been so good as
to communicate it."
; MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
("Peivate.) Loxdox, January 23c?, 1809.
" Dear Sir : — I dined at Mr. Canning's with the Corps
Diplomatique, on the 18th, the day appointed for the cele-
bration of the Queen's birth-day. Before dinner he came
up to me, and, entering into conversation, adverted to a re-
port which he said had reached him, that the American
ministers (here and in France) were about to be recalled.
I replied that I was not aware tliat such a stej) had already
been resolved upon. He then took me aside, and observed
that, according to his view of the late proceedings of Con-
gress, the resolutions of the House of Representatives in
committee of the whole, appeared to be calculated, if passed
into a law, to remove the impediments to an arrangement
with the United States upon the two subjects of the orders
in council and the Chesapeake — that the President's procla-
mation had in fact formed the great obstacle to the adoption
of what we had lately proposed, and that every body knew
that it had formed the sole obstacle to adjustment in the
other afiair — that the renewal of commercial intercourse
with America, while that proclamation remained in force,
would have been attended with this emharrass77ient, that
British merchant vessels, going into our ports, would have
found there the commissioned cruisers of the enemy in a ca-
j)acity to assail them as soon as they should put to sea ;
while British armed vessels, having no asylum in those
ports, would not have been equally in a situation to aftbrd
them protection — that if this was not insisted upon at large
in his reply to my official letter of the 23d of August, it was
228 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
because it was difficult to do so without giving to that paper
somewhat of an unfriendly appearance — that as the above
mentioned embarrassment, produced by the proclamation of
the President, and the right which Great Britain supposed
she had to complain of the continuance of that proclama-
tion, proceeded, not from the exclusion of British ships of
war from American ports, but from the discrimination in
that respect between Great Britain and her adversaries ;
and as the resolutions of the House of Eepresentatives took
away that discrimination, although not perhaps in the man-
ner which Great Britain could have wished, they were wiU-
ing to consider the law to which the resolutions were pre-
paratory, as putting an end to the difficulties which pre-
vented satisfactory adjustments with us. He then said that
they were, of course, desirous of being satisfied by us, that
the view which they thus took of the resolutions in question
was correct ; and ho intimated a wish that wc should say
that the intention of the American government was in con-
formity with that view. He added, that it was another
favorable circumstance that the non-importation system was
about to be applied to all the belligerents.
" As this occurred rather unexpectedly (although my re-
ception at court, and other circumstances of much more con-
sequence, had seemed to give notice of sojne change), and as
I did not think it advisable to say much, even informally,
upon topics of such delicacy at so short a warning, I pro-
posed to Mr. Canning that I should call on him in the course
of a day or two, for the purpose of a more free convei-sation
upon what he had mentioned, than was then practicable. To
this he readily assented ; and it was settled that I should
see him on the Sunday following (yesterday), at 12 o'clock,
at his own house. I thought it prudent, however, to suggest
at once, that the resolutions of the House of Eepresenta-
tives struck me as they did Mr. Canning ; and (supposing
myself to be warranted by your private letter of the 25th
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 229
of November, in going so far), I added, that although it was
evident that if Grreat Britain and France adhered to their
present systems, the resokitions had a necessary tendency to
hasten a disagreeable crisis, I was sure that my government,
retaining the spirit of moderation which had always charac-
terized it, would be most willing that Great Britain should
consider them as calculated to furnish an opportunity for ad-
vances to renewed intercourse and honorable explanations.
" The interview yesterday was of some length. An ar-
rangement with me was out of the question. An assurance
from me as to the intention of the American government
in passing (if indeed it had passed), an Exclusion and Non-
intercourse law, applicable to all the powers at war, was
equally out of the question. I had no authority to take any
official step in the business ; and I should not have taken any
without further instructions from you, founded upon the new
state of things, even if my former authority had not been at
an end. My object, therefore, was merely to encourage suit-
able approaches on the part of the government by such un-
official representations as I might be justified in making.
" I will not persecute you with a detail of my suggestions
to Mr. Canning, intended to place the conduct of our govern-
ment in its true light, and to second the effect which its firm-
ness and wisdom had manifestly produced. It wiU be suffi-
cient to state that, while I decKned (indeed it was not
pressed), giving or allowing Mr. Canning to expect any such
assurances as I had understood him to allude to in our last
conversation, I said every thing which I thought consistent
with discretion, to confirm him in his disposition to seek the
re-establishment of good understanding with us, and espe-
cially to see in the expected act of Congress, if it should pass,
an opening to which the most scrupulous could not object, as
well as the strongest motives of prudence for such advances,
before it should be too late, on the side of this countiy, as
could scarcely fail to produce the best results.
230 LIFE QF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
"It was of some importance to turn their attention here
without loss of time, to the manner of any proceeding which
might be in contemplation. It seemed that the resolutions
of the House of Representatives, if enacted into a law, might
render it proper, if not indispensable, that the affair of the
Chesapeake should be settled at the same time with the af-
fair of the orders and embargo ; and this was stated by Mr.
Canning to be his opinion and his wish It followed that
the whole matter ought to be settled at Washington ; and
as this was, moreover, desirable on various other grounds, I
suggested that it would be well (in case a special mission
did not meet their approbation), that the necessary powers
should be sent to Mr. Erskine ; but I offered my interven-
tion for the purpose of guarding them against deficiencies in
those powers, and of smoothing the way to a successful issue.
Ml'. Canning gave no ojiinion on this point,
" Although I forbear to trouble you in detail with what
I said to Mr. Canning, it is fit that you should know what
was said by him on every point of importance.
" In the course of conversation he proposed several ques-
tions for reflection, relative to our late proposal, which, when
that proposal was made, were not even glanced at. The
principal were the two following :
"1. In case they should now wish, either through me or
through Mr. Erskine, to meet us upon the ground of the late
overture, in what way was the effectual operation of our em-
bargo as to France, after it should be taken off as to Great
Britain, to be secured ? It was evident, he said, that if we
should do no more than refuse clearances for the ports of
France, &c., or prohibit, under penalties, voyages to such ports,
the effect which my letter of the 21st of August, and my
published instructions professed to have in view, would not
be produced ; for that vessels, although cleared for Brit-
ish ports, might, when once out, go to France instead of com-
ing here. That this would in fact be so (whatever the pen-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 231
allies which the American law might denounce against of-
fenders), could not, he imagined, be doubted ; and he pre-
sumed, therefore, as he could see no possible objection to it
(on our part), that the government of the United States
would not, after it had itself declared a commerce with France
illegal, and its *itizens who should engage in it delinquents,
complain if the naval force of this country should assist in
preventing such a commerce,
" 2. He asked whether there would be any objection to
asking the repeal of the British orders and of the American
embargo contemporaneous ? He seemed to consider this as
indispensable. Nothing could be less admissible, he said,
than that Great Britain, after rescinding her orders, should,
for any time, however short, be left subject to the embargo
in common with France, whose decrees were subsisting, with
a view to an experiment upon France, or with any other view.
The United States could not upon their own principles apply
the embargo to this country one moment after the orders
were removed, or decline after that event to apply it exclusive-
ly to France and the powers connected with her. Great
Britain would dishonor herself by any arrangement which
should have such an eifect, &c.
" You will recollect that my instructions (particularly
your letter of the 30th of April), had rather appeared to pro-
ceed upon the idea that the British orders were to be rei^ealed
before the embago was removed as to England ; and it is
probable that a perusal of these instructions led to Mr. Can-
ning's inquiry.
" Upon the whole, I thought I might j^resume that this
government had at last determined to sacrifice to us their
orders in council in the way we had before projiosed (although
Mr. Canning once, and only once, talked of amendment and
modification, which I immediately discouraged, as well as of
repeal), and to offer the amende honorable, in the case of the
. esapeake, provided Congress should be found to have passed
232 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
a law in conformity witli the resolutions of the House of
Kepresentatives. I ought to say, however, that Mr. Can-
ning did not precisely pledge himself to that effect ; and
that the past justifies distrust. The result of the elections
in America — the unexpected firmness displayed by Congress
and the nation — the disappointments in Spafu and elsewhere
— a perceptible alteration in public opinion here since the
last intelligence from the United States — an apprehension
of losmg our market, of having us for enemies, &c., have
apparently made a deep impression upon ministers ; but
nothing can inspire perfect confidence in their intentions but
an impossible forgetfulness of the past, or the actual con-
clusion of an arrangement wdth us. In a few days I may
calculate upon hearing from you. If Congress shall have
passed the exjDCcted act, the case to which Mr. Canning looks
will have been made, and he may be brought to a test from
which it will be diflicult to escape. Whatever may be my
instructions I shall obey them with fidelity and zeal ; but I
sincerely hope they will not make it my duty to prefer ad-
justment here to adjustment in Washington. I am firmly
pursuaded that it will be infinitely better that the business
should be transacted immediately with our government ; and,
if I shall be at liberty to do so, I shall continue to urge that
course.
" You will not fail to perceive that the ground upon
which it is now pretended that our proposition of last sum-
mer w^as rejected, is utterly inconsistent with Mr. Canning's
note, in which that proposition is distinctly rejected upon
other grounds, although in the conclusion of the note, the
President's proclamation is introduced hy-the-hy. Besides,
what can be more shallow than the pretext of the suj^posed
embarrassment !
" I took occasion to mention at the close of our conversa-
tion, the recent appointment of Admiral Berkely to the Lis-
bon station. Mr. Canning said that, with every inclination
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 233
to consult the feelings of the American government on that
subject, it was impossible for the admiralty to resist the claim
of that ojBficer to be employed, after such a lapse of time since
his recall from Halifax, without bringing him to a court-
martial. The usage of the navy was in that respect different
from that of the army. He might, however, still be brought
to a court-martial, and in what he had done, he had acted
wholly ^\ithout authority, &c., &c. I did not propose to
enter into any discussion upon the subject, and contented
myself with lamenting the appointment as unfortunate.
" The documents laid before Congress and published have
had a good efiect here. Your letter to Mr. Erskine I have
caused to be printed in a pamphlet, with my letter to Mr.
Canning of the 23d of August, and his rejjly. The report
of the committee of the House of Representatives is admitted
to be a most able paper, and has been published in the Morn-
ing Chronicle. The Times newspaper (notwithstanding its
former \iolence against us), agrees that our overture should
have been accepted.
" The opposition in Parliament is unanimous on this sub-
ject, although di\ided on others. Many of the friends of
government speak well of our overture, and almost every
body disapproves of Mr. Canning's note. The tone has
changed, too, in the city. In short, I have a strong hope
that the eminent wisdom of the late American measures
will soon be practically proved to the confusion of their op-
ponents.
" I refer you to the newspapers for news (in the highest
degree interesting) and for the debates. See particularly Mr.
Canning's speech in the House of Commons, on the 19th, as
reported in the Morning Chronicle.
" P. S. — As it was possible that the resolutions of the
House of Representatives might not pass into a law, I en-
deavored to accommodate my conversation of yesterday to
234 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
that possibility, at the same time that I did not refuse to let
Mr. Canning see that I supposed the law would pass.
"I have omitted to mention that we spoke of Mr.
Sawyer's letter in our first conversation, and that during the
whole of the evening, Mr. Canning seemed desirous of show-
ing, by more than usual kindness and respect, that it had
made no unfavorable impression. I incline to think that it
has rather done good than harm.
"I have marked this letter p^'ivate, because I under-
stood Mr. Canning as rather speaking confidentially than of-
ficially, and I certainly meant so to speak myself ; but you
will nevertheless make use of it as you think fit : of course it
will not in any event be pubHshed.
" A third embargo breaker has arrived at Kinsale, in Ire-
land, on her way to Liverpool. She is called the Sally, and
is of Virginia, with more than three hundred hogsheads of
tobacco."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
( "Private.) London, Mar/ SJ, 1809.
" Dear Sir : — I have had the honor to receive your letter
of the 17th of March, and thank you sincerely for your good
wishes. Permit me to offer my cordial congratulations upon
the manner in which you have been called to the Presidency.
Such a majority at such a time is most honorable to our
country and to you. My trust is that with the progress of
your administration, your friends will grow in strength and
numbers, and that the people will see in your future labors
new titles to praise and confidence. You have my cordial
wishes for your fame and happiness, and for the success of
all your views for the public good.
" The pubHcation of my letter of the 21st of September,
has not had the efiect which maHce expected and intended ;
and it is not improbable that it has contributed to produce a
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 235
result directly the reverse of its obvious purpose. Such an
incident, however, is injurious to the character of our coun-
try, but it will, doubtless, inspire at home such a distrust of
the honor of members of Congress, who could condescend to
so low and mahgnant a fraud, as to prevent a repeti-
tion of it.
" My letter to the Secretary of State will announce to
you the change which has taken place here on the subject of
the orders in council. I venture to hope that this measure
will open the way to reconcilement between this country
and America without any disparagement of our interests or
our honor. I have not time (as the messenger leaves town
in the morning, and it is now late at night) to trouble you
with a detailed statement of my notions on this subject —
but I will presume upon your indulgence for a few words
upon it.
" The change does undoubtedly produce a great effect in
a commercial view, and removes many of the most disgust-
ing features of that system of violence and monopoly against
which our efforts have been justly directed. The orders of
November were in execution of a sordid scheme of com-
mercial and fiscal advantage, to which America was to be
sacrificed. They were not more atrocious than mean. The
trade of the world was to be forced through British ports,
and to pay British imposts. As a beUigerent instrument,
the orders were nothing. They were a trick of trade — a
huckstering contrivance to enrich Great Britain, and drive
other nations from the seas. The new system has a better
air. Commerce is no longer to be forced through this coun-
try. We may go direct to Eussia, and to all other coun-
tries, except to France and Holland, and the kingdom of
Italy and their colonies. The duty system is at an end.
We may carry, as heretofore, enemy productions. The pro-
vision about certificates of origin is repealed. That about
prize ships is repealed also. What remains of the old mea-
236 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
sure is of a helligerent character, and is to be strictly ex-
ecuted as such. No licenses are to be granted even to Brit-
ish merchants to trade to Holland or France.
" There can be no question that this change gives us all
the immediate benefits which could have arisen out of the
acceptance of our overture of last year. It does not, in-
deed, give us the same claim to demand from France the re-
call of her edicts : but, in every other respect, it may be
doubted whether it is not more convenient. If that over-
ture had been received, a difficulty would have occurred as
to the mode of making it effectual, as mentioned in my pri-
vate letter of the 23d of January, And if we had agreed,
either formally or by mere understanding, to Mr. Canning's
suggestion, mentioned in the same letter, the substance of
the thing would have approached very nearly to what has
since been done. But, at any rate, the manner of the trans-
action is open to negotiation, and the intimation to that ef-
fect which has been made to me, may be an inducement to
resume a friendly attitude towards Great Britain, and to
put the sincerity of that intimation to the test.
" For the gain actually obtained, we may pay no price.
We give no pledge of any sort, and are not bound to take
any step whatever. The embargo is already repealed after
the end of the approaching session of Congress. The non-
intercourse law will expire at the same time. If neither
should be continued at the approaching session, negotiation
may be tried for obtaining what is yet to be desired, and,
that faihng, our future measures are in our own power.
" I am not sure that we have not got rid of the most
obnoxious portion of the British orders in the most acceptable
way. To what is left, it is impossible that either the gov-
ernment or the people of this country can be much attached.
Having obtained gratuitously the present concessions, we are
warranted in hoping that the rest, diminished in value, flat-
tering no prejudices, addressing itself to no peculiar interests,
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 237
and viewed with indifference by all, will be easily abandoned.
In the mean time our peace is preserved, and our industry
revived. France can have no cause of quarrel, nor we any
inducement to seek a quarrel with her. The United States are
no parties to the recent British measure as a measure of pres-
sure and coercion upon France. We may trade in consequence
of it, and endeavor to obtain further concessions, without the
hazard of war with either party; while what has already been
conceded saves our honor and greatly improves our situation.
Our overture of last summer, if accepted, must have produced
war with France, unless France had retracted her decrees,
which was greatly to be doubted. The recent British mea-
sure, not being the result of an arrangement with America,
will not have that tendency. For my own part, I have
always behoved that a war with France, if it could be avoided,
was the idlest thing we could do. We may talk of " un-
furling the republican banner against France " — but, when
we had unfurled our banner, there would be an end of our
exploits. This is precisely such a flourish as might be ex-
pected from a heavy intellect wandering from its ordinary
track. It is not remembered that if we go to war with
France, we shall be shut out from the continent of Europe,
without knowing where it would cease to repel us. It is not
remembered that in a war with France we might suffer, but
could not act — that we should be an humble ally without
hope of honor, and a feeble enemy without a chance of victory.
It appears to me that the world would stand amazed if we,
a commercial nation, whose interests are incompatible with
war, should, upon the instigation of our passions, strut into
the lists with gigantic France, with a metaphor in our mouths,
but with no means of annoyance in our hands, and professing
to be the champions of commerce, do just enough to provoke
its destruction and make ourselves ridiculous.
" Our friends in this country are all of opinion that we
should take in good part the new order in council, and, suf-
238 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
fering our restrictive laws to expire, rely upon friendly nego-
tiation and a change of policy in this government, for the
further success of our wishes. I can assure you with confi-
dence, that they would be greatly disappointed and grieved
^f we should be found to take any other course. Our triumph
is already considered as a signal one by every body. The
pretexts with which ministers would conceal their motives
for a rehnquishment of all which they prized in their system,
are seen through ; and it is universally viewed as a concession
to America. Our honor is now safe, and by managment we
may i)robably gain every thing we have in view. A change
of ministers is not unlikely, and if a change happens, it
will be favorable to us. Every thing consjiires to recommend
moderation.
" I need not, I am sure, make any aj)ology for myself,
even although you should think that less has been obtained
here than ought to have been obtained. I have endeavored
to do the best with the means put at my disposal, and I have
avoided committing my government. I am persuaded that
all that was practicable has been accomplished, and I have
a strong confidence that, used and followed up as your wisdom
and that of the legislature will direct, the result will be
good."
MB. PINKNEY TO MB. MADISON.
("Private.) Loxdox, Aur/iist 19th, 1809.
"Deab Sib : — I have had the honor to receive your kind
letter of the 2l8t of April, and now send the last edition of
Wcd' in Disguise as you request. As we are turning our at-
tention to wool, I have added a tract lately published here on
the merino and Anglo-merino sheep, which may be of use.
I trust that we shall continue to cultivate such manufactures
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 239
as suit our circumstances. Cottons now and woollens here-
after must flourish among us.
" American newspapers have been received here, showing
that the disavowal of Mr. Erskine's arrangement has excited
much ferment in the United States. I cannot subdue my
first regret that it was found to be necessary, at the last
regular session of Congress, to falter in the course we were
pursuing, and to give signs of inability to persevere in a sys-
tem which was on the point of accomplishing all its purposes.
That it was found to be necessary, I have no doubt ; but I
have great doubts whether, if it had fortunately been other-
wise, we should have had any cUsavoivcds. It is to be hoped,
however, that every thing will yet turn out well. That yoic
will do all that can be done at this perilous momeat for the
honor and advantage of our country, I am sure.
" I congratulate you heartily on the abundant proofs of
pubHc confidence which have marked the commencement of
your administration. I venture to prophesy that they will
multiply as you advance, and that your administration will,
in its maturity, be identified in the opinions of all men,
with the strength and character and prosperity of the
state.
" You will see from the English Journals that the British
army in Spain has fought gallantly. They make more of
this affair here than perhaps it deserves.
" The French account will not exactly agree with the
exulting inferences drawn by the people of England from
Sir Arthur Wellesley's dispatch, which indeed leaves a great
deal to inference.
"It is clear that the allied army greatly outnumbered
the French — that it was advantageously posted — that if the
Spaniards (forming the right wing to the amount of ujpwards
of 40,000 men) were not actively engaged, they must have oc-
cupied or kept in check an adequate number of the French,
or have been in a situation to turn the left flank of the
240 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
French — that oii the first of these suppositions the British
(on the left) could not have been attacked (as is here uni-
versally supposed) by the luliole French force — that on the
second supposition, it is quite unaccountable that the French
were not turned, taken in rear, and utterly exterminated.
" This splendid victory, after all, amounts to no more
than a repulse by nearly 70,000 men, enjoying every advan-
tage of position, of between 40 and 50,000. The loss of the
British is understood to have been tremendous. What the
Spanish loss was is not known, but it was no doubt consider-
able. Sir Arthur Wellesley admits that the French retired
in the most regular order, and it is not pretended that they
were pursued or molested in their retreat.
" We have no data to enable us to judge of the probable
result of the fm-ther projected operations of the British ex-
pedition. It will depend of course on the relative strength
of its opponents, which cannot be otherwise than great.
"I shall be greatly deceived if France relaxes at this
time from her decree against neutral rights. I should rather
have expected additional rigor if General Armstrong had not
given me reason to hope better things. The maritime arron-
dissement, now so near its completion, will furnish new induce-
ments to perseverance in the anti-commercial system.
" It appears from the newspapers, that Mr. Adams has
been appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to St. Petersburgh.
I rejoice at this appointment, for many reasons."
MB. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
("PnivATE.) London, Dec. 10th, 1809,
" Dear Sir : — I see with great pleasure the ground taken
by the Secretary of State in his correspondence with Mr.
Jackson, connected with the probabihty that our jjeople are
recovering from recent delusion, and will hereafter be disposed
LITE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 241
to support witli zeal and steadiness the efforts of their
government to maintain their honor and character, Jack-
son's course is an extraordinary one, and his manner is little
better.
" The British government has acted for some time upon
an opinion, that its partisans in America were too numerous
and strong to admit of our persevering in any system of re-
pulsion to British injustice ; and it cannot be denied that
appearances countenanced this humiliating and pernicious
opinion, which has been entertained by our friends. My
own confidence in the American people was great ; but it
was shaken, nevertheless. I am reassured, however, by pre-
sent symptoms, and give myself up once more to hope.
The prospect of retuming virtue is cheering ; and I trust it
is not in danger of being obscured and deformed by the re-
currence of those detestable scenes which only reduced our
patriotism to a problem.
" The neio ministry (if the late changes entitle it to be
so called) is at least as likely as the last to presume upon
our divisions. I have heard it said that it was impossible to
form a cabinet more unfriendly to us, more effectually steeped
and dyed in all those bad principles which have harassed and
insulted us. I continue to believe that, as it is now consti-
tuted, or even with any modifications of which it is suscep-
tible, it cannot last ; and that it will not choose to hazard
much in maintaining against the United States the late
maritime innovations.
" The people of England are rather better disposed than
heretofore to accommodate with us. They seem to have
awaked from the flattering dreams by which their understand-
ings have been so long abused. Disappointment and disas-
ter have dissipated the briUiant expectations of undefined
prosperity which had dazzled them into moral bhndness, and
had cheated them of their discretion as well as of then- sense
of justice. In this state of things America naturally resumes
16
242 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
her importance, and her rights become again intelligible.
Lost as we were to the view of Englishmen during an over-
powering blaze of imaginary glory and commercial grandeur,
we are once more visible in the sober light to which facts
have tempered and reduced the glare of fiction. The use of
this opportunity depends upon ourselves, and doubtless we
shall use it as we ought.
" It is, after all, perhaps to be doubted whether any thing
but a general peace (which if we may judge from the past,
it is not unUkely France will soon propose) can remove all
dilemma from our situation. More wisdom and virtue than
it would be quite reasonable to expect, must be found in the
councils of the two great belligerent parties, before the war
in which they are now engaged can become harmless to our
rights. Even if England should recall (and I am convinced
she could have been, and yet can be, compelled to recall)
her fooHsh orders in council, her maritime pretensions will
still be exuberant, and many of her practices most oppres-
sive. From France we have only to look for what hostility
to England may suggest. Justice and enlightened policy
are out of the question on both sides. Upon France, I fear,
we have no means of acting with effect. Her ruler sets our
ordinary means at defiance. We cannot alarm him for his
colonies, his trade, his manufactures, his revenue. He would
not probably be moved by our attempts to do so, even if
they were directed exclusively against himself He is less
likely to be so moved while they comprehend his enemy. A
war with France, I shall always contend, would not help our
case. It woulJ aggravate our embarrassments in all respects.
Our interests w\ uld be struck to the heart by it. For our
honor it could io nothing. The territory of this mighty
power is absolu».ely invulnerable ; and there is no mode in
which we could nake her feel either physical or moral coer-
cion. We might as well declare war against the inhabitants
of the moon or of the Georgium Sidus. When we had pro-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 243
duced the entire exclusion of our trade from the whole of
continental Europe, and increased its hazards every where,
what else could we hope to achieve by gallantry, or win by
stratagem ? Great Britain would go smuggling on as usual;
hut we could neither fight nor smuggle. We should tire of
so absurd a contest long before it would end (who shall say
when it should end ?) and we should come out of it, after
wondering how we got into it, with our manufactures anni-
hilated by British competition, our commerce crippled by an
enemy and smothered by a friend, our spirit debased into
listlessness, and our character deeply injured. I beg your
pardon for recurring to this topic, upon which I will not
fatigue you with another word, lest I should persecute you
with many.
" The ministry are certainly endeavoring to gain strength
by some changes. It is said that Lord Wellesley is trying
to bring Mr. Canning back to the cabinet ; and if so, I see
no reason why he should not succeed. One statement is that
Mr. Canning is to go to the Admiralty — another, that he is
to return to the Foreign Department, that Lord Wellesley
is to take the Treasury, and Mr. Percival to relapse into a
mere Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is added that Lord
Cambden (President of the Council), and Lord Westmore-
land (Privy Seal), are to go out.
" If Mr. Canning should not join his old colleagues before
the meeting of Parliament, he wiU probably soon fall into
the ranks of opposition, where he will be formidable. There
will scarcely be any scruple in receiving him. If he should
join his old colleagues, they wiU not gain much by him.
As a debater in the House of Commons, he would be useful
to them ; but his reputation is not at this moment in the
best possible plight, and his weight and connections are al-
most nothing. I am not sure that they would not lose by
him more than they could gain.
" If Lord Grenville and Lord Grey should be recalled to
244 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
power, Lord Holland would be likely to have the station
of Foreign Secretary (Lord G-rey preferring, as is said, the
Admiralty).
" I believe that I have not mentioned to you that Mr.
G. H. Eose was to have been the special envoy to our coun-
try, if Mr. Erskine's arrangement had not been disavowed,
I am bound to say, that a worse choice coidd not have been
made. Since his return to England, he has, I know, mis-
represented and traduced us with an industry that is abso-
lutely astonishing, notwithstanding the cant of friendship
and respect with which he overwhelms the few Americans
who see him."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. MADISON.
("Private.) London, August 13</i, 1810.
" Dear Sir : — I return you my sincere thanks for your
letter of the 23d of May. Nothing could have been more
acceptable than the approbation which you are so good as
to express of my note to Lord Wellesley on Jackson's af-
fairs. I wish I had been more successful in my endeavors
to obtain an unexceptionable answer to it. You need not
be told that the actual reply was, as to plan and terms, wide
of the expectations which I had formed of it. It was, un-
fortunately, delayed until first \qews and feelings became
weak of themselves. The support which Jackson received
in America was admirably calculated to j)roduce other views
and feelings, not only by its direct influence on Lord Wel-
lesley and his colleagues, but by the influence which they
could not but know it had on the British nation and the
Parliament. The extravagant conduct of France had the
same pernicious tendency ; and the aj)pearances in Congress,
with reference to our future attitude on the subject of the
atrocious wrongs inflicted upon us by France and England,
could scarcely be without their efiect. It is not to be
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 245
doubted that, with a strong desire in the outset to act a
very conciliatory part, the British government was thus
gradually prepared to introduce into the proceeding what
would not otherwise have found a place in it, and to omit
what it ought to have contained. The subject appeared to
it every day in a new light, shed upon it from France and
the United States ; and a corresponding change naturally
enough took place in the scarcely remembered estimates
which had at first been made of the proper mode of manag-
ing it. The change in Lord Wellesley's notion upon it,
between our first interview and the date of his answer, had,
without doubt, his full approbation. For, the account of
this interview, as given in my private letter to Mr. Smith,
of the 4th of January, is so far from exaggerating Lord
Wellesley's reception of what I said of him, that it is much
below it. It is to be observed that he had hardly read the
correspondence, and had evidently thought very little upon
it. For which reason, and because he spoke for himself
only, and with less care than he would, perhaps, have used
if he had considered that he was speaking officially, I am
glad that you declined laying my private letter before Con-
gress. The publication of it, which must necessarily have
followed, would have produced serious embarrassment.
" Do you not think that, in some respects. Lord Wel-
lesley's answer to my note had not been exactly appreciated
in America.^ I confess to you that this is my opinion.
That the paper is a very bad one is perfectly clear ; but it
is not so bad in intention as it is in reality, nor quite so bad
in reality as it is commonly supposed to be.
" It is the production of an indolent man, making a great
effort to reconcile things almost incongruous, and just show-
ing his wish without executing it. Lord WeUesley wished
to be extremely civil to the American government ; but he
was, at the same time, to be very stately — to manage Jack-
son's situation — and to intimate disapprobation of the sus-
246 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
pension of his functions. He was stately, not so much from
design as because he cannot be otherwise. In managing
Jackson's situation he must have gone beyond his original
intention, and certainly beyond any of which I was aware
before I received his answer. If the answer had been
promptly written, I have no belief that he would have af-
fected to praise Jackson's 'ability, zeal, and integrity,' or
that he would have said any thing about his Majesty not
having ' marked his conduct with any expression of his dis-
pleasure.' He would have been content to forbear to cen-
sure him, and that I always took for granted he would do.
" For Jackson, personally. Lord Wellesley cares nothing.
In his several conferences with me, he never vindicated him,
and he certainly did not mean in his letter to undertake
his defence. It is impossible that he should not have (/ am
indeed sure that he has) a mean opinion of that most clumsy
and ill-conditioned minister. His idea always appeared to
be that he was wrong in pressing at all the topic which gave
offence ; but that he acted upon good motives, and that his
government could not with honor, or without injury to the
diplomatic service generally, disgrace him. This is expli-
citly stated in my private letter of the 4th of January to
Mr. Smith. There is great difference, undoubtedly, between
that idea and the one upon which Lord Wellesley appears
finally to have acted. It must be admitted, however, that
the praise betowed upon Jackson is very meagre, and that it
ascribes to him no qualities in any degree inconsistent with
the charge of gross indecency and intolerable petulance pre-
ferred against him in my note. He might be honest, zealous,
able, and yet be indiscreet, ill-tempered, suspicious, arrogant
and ill-mannered. It is to be observed, too, this has no ref-
erence whatever to the actual case, and that, when the an-
swer speaks of the offence imputed to Jackson by the Ame-
rican government, it does not say that he gave no such cause
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 247
of offence, but simply relies on his repeated asseverations
that he did not mean to offend.
" If the answer had been promptly written, I am per-
suaded that another feature which now distinguishes it would
have been otherwise. It would not have contained any com-
plaint against the course adopted by the American govern-
ment in putting an end to official communication with Jack-
son. That Lord Wellesley thought that course objectionable
from the fii'st appears in my private letter above-mentioned
to Mr. Smith. But he did not urge his objections to it in
such a way, at our first interview or afterwards, as to induce
me to suppose that he would except to that course in his
written answer. He said in the outset that he considered it
a damnum to the British government, and I know that he
was not disposed to acknowledge the regularity of it. There
was evidently no necessity, if he did not approve the course,
to say any thing about it ; and in our conversations I always
assumed that it was not only unnecessary but wholly inad-
missible to mention it oflficially for any other purpose than
that of approving it.
" After all, however, what he has said upon this point
(idle and iU-judged as it is) is the mere statement of the
opinion of the British government, that another course would
have been more in rule than ours. It amounts to this, then,
that we have opinion against opinion and practice ; and that
onr practice has been acquiesced in.
''As to that part of the answer which speaks of a charge
d'affoAres, it must now be repented of here, especially by
Lord Wellesley, if it was reaUy intended as a threat of
future inequality in the diplomatic establishments of the two
countries, or even to wear that appearance. Lord Wellesley's
letter to me of the 22d ult. abandons that threat, and makes
it consequently much worse than nothing. His explanations
to me on that head {not official) have lately been, that, when
he wrote his answer, he thought there was some person in
248 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
America to whom Jackson could have immediately, delivered
his charge, and if he had not been under that impression, he
should not probably have spoken in his answer of a charge
d'affaires, and should have sent out a minister plenipoten-
tiary in the first instance. I know not what stress ought to
be laid upon those private and ex post facto suggestions ; but
I am entirely convinced that there was no thought of con-
tinuing a charge d'affaires at Washington for more than a
short time. Neither their pride nor their interests, nor the
scantiness of their present diplomatic patronage would per-
mit it. That Lord Wellesley has long been looking out in
his dilatory ivay for a suitable character (a man of rank)
to send as minister jilenipotentiary to "the United States, I
have the best reason to be assured. That the appointment
has not yet taken place, is no proof at all that it has not
been intended. Those who think they understand Lord
Wellesley best, represent him as disinclined to business — and
it is certain that I have found liim upon every occasion
given to procrastination beyond all example. The business
of the Chesapeake is a striking instance. Nothing could be
fairer than his various conversations on that case. He set-
tles it with me verbally over and over again. He promises
his written overture in a few days — and I hear no more of
the matter. There may be cunning in all this, but it is not
such cunning as I should expect from Lord Wellesley.
" In the afiair of the blockades, it is evident that the
delay arises from the cabinet, alarmed at every thing which
touches the subject of blockades, and that abominable scheme
of monopoly called the Orders in Council. Yet it is an un-
questionable fact that they have suffered, and are suffering
severely under the iniquitous restrictions which they and
France have imposed upon the world.
" I mean to wait a little longer for Lord Wellesley's reply
to my note of the 30th of April. If it is not soon received,
I hope I shall not be thought indiscreet if I present a strong
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 249
remonstrance upon it, and if I take occasion in it to advert
to the affair of the Chesapeake, and to expose what has oc-
curred in that affair between Lord Wellesley and me.
" I have a letter from G-eneral Armstrong of the 24th of
last month. He expects no change in the measures of the
French government with regard to the United States. I
cannot, however, refrain from hoping that we shall have no
war with that government. We have a sufficient cause for
war against both France and England — an equal cause
against both in point of justice, even if we take into the ac-
count the recent violences of the former. But looking to
expediency, which should never be lost sight of, I am not
aware of any considerations that should induce us in actual
circumstances to embark in a war with France. I have so
often troubled you on this topic, that I wiU not ventm'e to
stir it ao-ain."
MK. PINKNEY TO LORD WELLESLEY.
"Great Cumberland Place, Hov. 3d, 1810.
" My Lord : — In my note of the 25th of August, I had
the honor to state to your lordship, that I had received from
the minister plenipotentiary of the United States, at Paris,
a letter dated the 6th of that month, in which he informed
me, that he had received from the French government a
written and official notice, that it had revoked the decrees
of Berlin and Milan, and that after the first of November,
those decrees would cease to have any effect ; and I ex-
pressed my confidence, that the revocation of the British
orders in council, of January and November, 1807, and
April, 1809, and of all other orders dependent upon, analo-
gous to, or in execution of them, would follow of course,
" Your lordship's reply, of the 31st of August, to that
note, repeated a declaration of the British minister in Ame-
250 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
rica, made, as it appears, to the government of the United
States in February, 1808, of ' his Majesty's earnest desire to
see the commerce of the world restored to that freedom which
is necessary for its prosperity, and his readiness to abandon
the system which had been forced upon him, whenever the
enemy should retract the principles which had rendered it
necessary ;' and added an ofi&cial assurance, that, ' whenever
the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken
effect, and the commerce of neutral nations should have been
restored to the condition in which it stood pre\dously to the
promulgation of those decrees, his Majesty would feel the
highest satisfaction in relinquishing a system which the con-
duct of the enemy compelled him to adopt.'
" Without departing, in any degree, from my first opin-
ion, that the United States had a right to expect, upon
every principle of justice, that the prospective revocation of
the French decrees would be immediately followed by at
least a like revocation of the orders of England, I must re-
mind your lordship, that the day has now passed when the
repeal of the Berlin and Milan edicts, as communicated to
your lordship in the note above-mentioned, and published
to the whole world by the government of France, in the
Moniteur of the 9th of September, was, by the terms of it,
to take effect. That it has taken effect, cannot be doubted ;
and it can as httle be questioned, that, according to the re-
peated pledges given by the British government on this
point (to say nothing of various other powerful considera-
tions), the prompt relinquishment of the system, to which
your lordship's reply to my note of the 25th of August
alludes, is indispensable.
"I need scarcely mention how important it is to the
trade of the United States, that the government of Great
Britain should lose no time in disclosing with frankness and
precision its intentions on this head. Intelligence of the
Trench repeal has reached America, and commercial expe-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKKEY. 251
ditions have doubtless been founded upon it. It will have
been taken for granted that the British obstructions to those
expeditions, having thus lost the support, which, however in-
sufficient in itself, was the only one that could ever be
claimed for them, have been withdrawn ; and that the seas
are once more restored to the dominion of law and justice.
" I persuade myself that this confidence wiU be substan-
tially justified by the event, and that to the speedy recall
of such orders in councU as were subsequent in date to the
decrees of France, will be added the annulment of the ante-
cedent order to which my late letter respecting blockades
particularly relates. But if, notwithstanding the circum-
stances which invite to such a course, the British govern-
ment shall have determined not to remove those obstructions
with all practicable promptitude, I trust that my government
will be apprised, with as little delay as possible, of a deter-
mination so unexpected, and of such vital concern to its
rights and interests ; and that the reasons upon which that
determination may have been formed, will not be withheld
from it."
MR. PINKNEY TO MR. SMITH.
"London, Nov. Uih, 1810.
" Sir : — I have finally determined not to mention again
to Lord Wellesley (as I thought of doing) the subject of a
plenipotentiary successor to Mr. Jackson. I think, upon re-
flection (and shall act accordingly), that I ought, after what
has passed, to leave him, without fiirther inquiry or notice
on my part, to shape his course upon it ; and that, if an ap-
pointment should not be made as soon as the king's health
(which would seem to be improving) wiU permit, I ought at
once to send in an official note, announcing my resolution to
return to America, and to leave some suitable person as a
charge d'affaires.
252 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
" My letter of the 23cl of July mformed you that after
Lord Wellesley's written assurance of the 22d of that month
(which was in conformity, as far as it went, with his as-
surances in conversation), ' that it was his intention imme-
diately to recommend the appointment of an envoy extra-
ordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the king to the
United States,' I did not think myself authorized to take the
step which the instructions contained in your letter of the
23d of May, in certain circumstances, prescribed.
" My opinion was, that whether the prospect which then
existed of bringing to a conclusion the affair of the Chesa-
peake, were taken into the account or not, it was my obvious
duty to remain at my post, most irksome as it was every day
becoming, until it should incontestably appear that those
assurances were not to be relied upon.
" Before a sufficient time had elapsed to warrant so harsh
a conclusion, I received from Lord Wellesley, on the 28th
of August, a farther casual intimation (reported to you in
my letter of the 29th of the same month) that his recom-
mendation of a minister would, as he believed, be made in
the course of that week or the next.
" In the mean time the repeal, by the government of
France, of the Berlin and Milan decrees, had produced a
posture of affairs which, whatever might be Lord Wellesley's
forgetfulness of his own declarations, or the inattention of his
government to what he might advise in consequence of tliem,
rendered my stay in England for two or three months longer,
indispensable.
" In fine, the effect of that consideration had not ceased
when the illness of the king made it impossible that I
should depart.
" Upon the king's recovery, I shaU have every motive for
bringing this matter to an issue, and none for the least hesi-
tation or reserve upon it. Several months have been allowed
LIFE OF •WILLIAM PINKNEY. 253
for the performance of an act whicli might have been com-
pleted in as many weeks.
" I shall have done every thing in my power on the sub-
jects connected with the revocation of the French edicts.
And the British government wiU be in a situation to admit
of such proceedings on its own j^art and on mine as the occa-
sion will requu-e.
" From Lord Wellesley's intimation to me on the 28th
of August (mentioned above), it is perfectly clear, that he
had not then executed the intention so positively announced
in his note of the 22d of July. Five or six weeks had
passed, and that which he had both said and written he
meant to do immediately, he was not yet sure that he meant
to do within another fortnight. The presumption seems,
nevertheless, to be quite unnatural, that Lord Wellesley con-
tinued, up to the commencement of the king's malady, to be
negligent of a pledge, which he chose to rest not merely on
his official but his pe7'S07ial character — a pledge, of which he
knew I could neither question the sufficiency nor doubt the
sincerity, and by which, as he also knew, my conduct on an
extremely delicate point of duty was wholly determined.
" On the other hand, if Lord Wellesley has been mind-
ful of his pledge, and has recommended a minister in com-
pUance with it, how has it happened (how can it have
happened) that this recommendation has not been followed
by an appointment.
" In the midst of all this doubt, which Lord Wellesley
might dissipate if he pleased by an explanation apparently
necessary for his own sake, there is, as I believe, no uncer-
tainty as to the course which, in the actual state of my in-
structions (or on the score of general propriety), I ought to
piu-sue ; especially as I must infer, from your silence since the
arrival of Mr. Morier at Washington (if I had no other
reason for that inference), that no such communication was
254 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
made, either by or through that gentleman to you, as ought
in the judgment of the President to have any influence upon
my conduct on this occasion."
ME. PINKNET TO LORD WELLESLEY.
" Great Cumbekland Place, December \Oth, 1810.
" My Lord: — In compliance with the request contained
in your note of the 6th instant, I proceed to recapitulate in
this letter (with some variations however) the statements
and remarks which I had the honor to make in our confer-
ence of the 5th, respecting the revocation of the French de-
crees, as connected with a change of system here on the sub-
ject of neutral rights.
" Your lordship need not be told that I should have been
happy to offer, at a much earlier moment, every explanation
in my power on matters of such high concern to the rights
and commerce of my country, and the future character of its
foreign relations, if I had been made to understand that ex-
planation was desired.
" My wiitten communications of August and November
were concise, but they were not intended to be insufficient.
They furnished evidence which I thought conclusive, and ab-
stained from labored commentary, because I deemed it su-
perfluous. I had taken up an opinion, wliich I abandoned
reluctantly and late, that the British government would be
eager to follow the example of France in recalling, as it had
professed to do in promulgating, that extraordinary system
of maritime annoyance, which, in 1807, presented to neutral
trade, in almost all its directions, the hopeless alternative of
inactivity or confiscation ; which considered it as a subject to
be regulated, like the trade of the United Kingdoms, by the
statutes of the British Parliament ; and undertook to bend
and fashion it by every variety of expedient to all the pur-
poses and even the caprices of Great Britain. I had no idea
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 255
that the remnant of that system, pKoductive of no conceiva-
ble advantage to England, and deservedly odious for its the-
ory and destructive effects, to others, could survive the pub-
lic declaration of France that the edicts of Berlin and Milan
were revoked. Instructed at length, however, by your lord-
ship's continued silence, and alarmed for the property of my
fellow citizens, now more than ever exposed by an erroneous
confidence, to the ruinous operation of the British orders, I
was preparing to support my general representations by de-
tailed remonstrance, when I received the honor of your note
of the 4th instant. In the conference which ensued,* I trou-
bled your lordship with a verbal communication, of which
the following is nearly the substance.
" The doubts which appear to stand in the way of the
recall of the British orders in council ( under which denomi-
nation I include certain orders of blockade of a kindred prin-
ciple and spirit), must refer to the manner, or the terms, or
the practical effect of the alleged repeal of the decrees of
France.
" That the manner of the proceeding is satisfactory to
the British government cannot be questioned ; since it is
precisely that in which its own numerous orders for establish-
ing, modifying, or removing blockades and other maritime
obstructions, are usually proclaimed to neutral states and
merchants.
" The French repeal was officially notified on the 5th of
August, to the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States at Paris, by the French minister for foreign affairs ;
as I had the honor to inform your lordship in my letter of the
25th of the same month, which not only gave the import,
but (as the inclosed copy will show), adopted the words of
General Armstrong's statement to me of the tenor and effect
of that notice.
" On the 9th of August the notification to General Arm-
strong was published in the Moniteur, the official journal of
256 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
the French government, as the act of that government ; and
thus became a formal declaration, and a public pledge to all
who had an interest in the matter of it.
" It would be a waste of time to particularize the nimier-
ous instances of analogous practice in England, by which
this course is countenanced ; but a recent example happens
to be before me, and may therefore be mentioned. The par-
tial recall or modification of the English blockade of the
ports and places of Spain, from Gijon to the French terri-
tory (itself known to my government only through a circular
notification to me recited afterwards in the London Gazette),
was declared to the American and other governments in ex-
actly the same mode.
" I think it demonstrable that the terms in which the
French revocation was announced, are just as free from well
founded objection as the manner.
" Your lordship's view of them is entirely unknown to
me ; but 1 am not ignorant that there are those in this coun-
try who, professing to have examined them with care, and
having certainly examined them with /ea^ows^/j maintain that
the revocation on the 1st of November, was made to depend
by the obvious meaning of those terms, upon a condition
precedent which has not been fulfilled, namely — the revoca-
tion by Great Britain of her orders in councU, including such
blockading orders as France complains of as being illegal.
"If this were even admitted to be so, I am yet to learn
upon what grounds of justice the British government could
decline to meet, by a similar act on its part, an advance thus
made to it by its adversary, in the face of the world, towards
a co-operation in the great w^ork of restoring the liberty of
the ocean ; so far, at least, as respects the orders in council of
1807 and 1809, and such blockades as resemble tliem. It
is not necessary, however, to take this view of the question ;
for the French revocation turns on no condition precedent, is
absolute, precise and unequivocal.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 257
" What constniction of the document which declares that
revocation might be made by determined suspicion and dis-
trust, I have no wish, and am not bound to inquire. Such
interpreters would not be satisfied by any form of words, and
would be Hkely to draw the same conclusion from perfect ex-
plicitness and studied obscurity. It is enough for me that
the fair and natural and necessary import of the paper af-
fords no color for the interpretation I am about to examine.
" The French declaration ' that the decrees of Berlin and
Milan Are Bevoked, and that from the first of November
they will cease to have any effect,' is precision itself. But
they are followed by these words : 'bien entendu qu'en
consequence de cette declaration les Anglois revoqueront
leurs arrets du conseU, et renonceront aux nouveaux prin-
cipes de blocus qu'ils ont voulu etablir, ou bien que les Etats
Unis, conformement a I'acte que vous venez communique, feront
respecter leur droits par les Anglois.'
" If these words state any condition, they state two, the
first depending upon Great Britain, the last upon the United
States : and as they are put in the disjunctive, it would be
extravagant to hold that the non-performance of one of them
is equivalent to the non-performance of both. I shall take
for granted, therefore, that the argument against my con-
struction of the Duke of Cadore's letter must be moulded
into a new form. It must deal with two conditions instead
of one, and considering them equally as conditions precedent
to be performed (disjunctively) before the day limited for the
operative commencement of the French repeal, must main
tain that if neither of them should be performed before that
day, the decrees were not to be revoked, and, consequently,
that as neither of them has been so performed, the decrees
are stUl in force.
" If this hypothesis of previous conditions, thus reduced
to the only shape it can assume, be proved to be unsound,
my construction is at once established ; since it is only upon
17
258 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
that hypothesis that any doubt can be raised against the ex-
act and perspicuous assurance that the decrees were actually
repealed, and that the repeal would become effectual on the
1st of November. This hypothesis is proved to be unsound,
by the following consideration.
" It has clearly no foundation in the phraseology of the
paper, which does not contain a syllable to put any condition
before the repeal. The repeal is represented as a step al-
ready taken, to have effect on a day specitied. Certain con-
sequences are, indeed, declared to be expected from this pro-
ceeding ; but no day is given, either expressly or by implica-
tion, within which they are to happen. It is not said, ' bien
entendu que les Anglois auront revoque,' &c., but ' que les
Anglois revoqueront,' &c., indefinitely as to time.
" The notion of conditions precedent is, therefore, to say
the least of it, perfectly gratuitous. But it is also absurd.
It drives us to the conclusion, that a palpable and notorious
impossibility was intended to be prescribed as a condition,
in a paper Avhicli they who think it was meant to deceive,
must admit was meant to be plausible.
" It was a palpable and notorious impossibility, that the
United States should, before the 1st of November, execute
any condition, no matter what the nature of it, the per-
lormance of which was to follow the ascertained failure of a
condition to be executed by Great Britain at amj time be-
fore the same 1st of Novemljer. That the act expected from
the United States was to be consequent upon the failure of
the other, is apparent. It is also apparent, that upon any
interpretation which would make the act of Great Britain a
condition precedent to the French repeal, and consequently
precedent to the 1st of November (when the repeal was, if
ever, to take effect), that condition could not be said to have
failed before the whole p)eriod, from the 5th of August to the
1st of November, had elapsed. But if Great Britain had
had the whole time, within which to elect the course which
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNER. 259
she would pursue, what opportunity would be left to the
United States (equally bound, upon this idea of conditions
precedent, to act their part within the same period), to be-
come acquainted with that election, and to decide upon and
take their own course in consequence ; to say nothing of the
transmission of such intelligence of it to Europe as would be
indispensable to the eflScacy of the conditional revocation.
This general view would be sufficient to discredit the ar-
bitrary construction under consideration. But it will be
more completely exposed by an explanation of the nature of
the act, which the latter professes to expect from the United
States, in case Great Britain should omit to revoke. This
act is the revival of the non-intercourse law against Eng-
land, France remaining exemj)t from it, as well as from the
provisions of the subsequent law, commonly called the non-
intercourse act. Now, if it is too plain, upon the face of the
last mentioned law (to which the letter expressly refers) to
escape the most negligent and unskilful observer, that this
revival could not, by any industry or chance, be accom-
plished before the time fixed for the cessation of the French
decrees, or even for a considerable time afterwards, it cer-
tainly cannot be allowable to assume, that the revival was
required by the letter (whatever was the object of the writer
or his government) to precede the cessation. And if this
was not required, it is incontrovertible that the cessation
would, by the terms of the letter, take place on the ap-
pointed day, whether any of the events disjunctively speci-
fied had intervened or not.
" The first step towards a revival of the non-intercourse
against England would be the proclamation of the Pre-
sident, that France had so revoked or modified her edicts, as
that they ceased to violate the neutral commerce of the
United States. But the letter of Monsieur Champagny left
the decrees, as it found them, up to the first of November,
and, consequently, tip to that day it could not, for any thing
260 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
contained in that letter, be said that the rights of American
commerce were no longer infringed by them, A prospective
proclamation, that they loould cease to violate those rights,
might, perhaps, be issued ; but it could scarcely have any
substantial operation, either in favor of France or to the
prejudice of England, until the epoch to which it looked had
arrived.
"Let it be admitted, however, that all physical and
legal obstacles to the issuing, before tlie first of November, of
a proclamation, to take effect immediately, were out of the
way — ^how would such a proceeding fulfil, of itself, the ex-
pectation that the United States would, before the first of
November J " cause their rights to be respected by the Eng-
hsh," in the mode pointed out in the letter, namely, by the
enforcement of the non-intercourse law ? The proclamation
would work no direct or immediate consequence against
England. Three months from its date must pass away be-
fore the non-intercourse law could revive against her ; and
when it did so, the revival would not be the effect of the
proclamation, but of the continued adherence of England to
her obnoxious system. Thus, even if a proclamation, effec-
tual from its date, had been issued by the President on the
day when the French declaration of repeal came to the hands
of the American minister at Paris, the intercourse between
the United States and Great Britain would, on the first of
November, have remained in the same condition in which it
was found in August, As all this was well understood by
the government of France, the conclusion is, that its minis-
ter, professing too to have the American law before him, and
to expect only what was conformable ivitJi that lau>, did not
intend to require the revival of the non-intercourse against
England as a condition to be performed before the first of
November.
"It is worthy of remark, as introductory to another
view of tliis subject, that even they who conclude that the
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 261
repeal of the Frencli decrees has failed are not backward to
ascribe to the French declaration a j^urpose utterly incon-
sistent with that conclusion. They suppose the purpose to
have been to affect the existing relations between America
and England, by the only means which the declaration
states, the act of non-intercourse. And it is certain that
unless England should abandon particular parts of her sys-
tem, this was the result avowedly in view, and meant to be
accomplished. But there could be no hope of such a resrdt
without a previous effectual relinquishment of the French
decrees. A case could not other\vise be made to exist (as
the Duke of Cadore was aware) for such an operation of the
American law. To put the law before the revocation of the
edicts was impossible. AVith the law in his hand it would
have been miraculous ignorance not to know that it was the
exact reverse of this which his paper must proj)ose. He
would derive this knowledge, not from that particular law
only, but from the whole tenor and spirit of American pro-
ceedings, in that painful and anomalous dilemma, in which
G-reat Britain and France, agreeing in nothing else, had re-
cently combined to place the maritime interests of America.
He would collect from those proceedings tbat, while those
conflicting powers continued to rival each other in their ag-
gressions upon neutral rights, the government of the United
States would oppose itself impartially to both. The French
declaration, then, had either no meaning at all, or it meant
to announce to General Annstrong a positive revocation of
the French edicts.
" I should only fatigue your lordship by pursuing farther
a point so plain and simple. I will, therefore, merely add
to what I have already said on this branch of the subject,
that the strong and unqualified communication from Gene-
ral Armstrong to me, mentioned in the commencement of
this letter, and corroborated by subsequent communications
(one of which I now lay before you), may, perhaps, without
262 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
any great effort of courtesy, be allowed to contain that
" authentic intelligence " which your lordship is in search of.
He could scarcely have been free from doubt if the occasion
was calculated to suggest it^ and if he had really doubted,
would hardly have spoken to me with the confidence of
conviction.
" It only remains to speak of the practical effect of the
French repeal. And here your lordship must suffer me to
remind you that the orders of England in 1807, did not
wait for the practical effect of the Berlin decree, nor linger
till the obscurity, in which the meaning of that decree was
supposed to be involved, should be cleared away by time
or explanation. They came promptly after the decree it-
self, while it was not only ambiguous but inoperative, and
raised upon an idle prohibition, and a yet more idle declara-
tion, which France had not attempted to enforce, and was
notoriously incapable of enforcing a vast scheme of oppres-
sion upon the seas, more destructive of all the acknow-
ledged rights of peaceful states than history can parallel.
This retaliation, as it was called, was so rapid, that it was
felt before the injury which was said to have provoked it ;
and yet, that injury, such as it was, was preceded by the
practical assertion, on the part of Great Britain, of new and
alarming principles of public law, in the notification of the
blockade of May, 1806, and in the judicial decisions of the
year before. To ui)hold the retaliatory orders, every thing
was 'presumed with a surprising facility. Not only was an
impotent, unexecuted, and equivocal menace presumed to be
an active scourge of the commerce of neutral nations, but
the acquiescence of those nations was presumed against the
plainest evidence of facts.
"The alacrity with which all this was done can never be
remembered without regret and astonishment ; but our re-
gret and astonishment must increase, if, after four years
have been given to the 2:)ernicious innovation, which these
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 263
presumptions were to introduce and support, something like
the same alacrity should not he displayed in seizing an hon-
orahle opportunity of discarding it for ever.
" It is not unnatural to imagine that it will he discard-
ed with pleasure, ivhen it is considered, that having never
been effectual as an instrument of hostility, it cannot now
lay claim to those other recommendations for which it may
have heretofore been prized. The orders in council of No-
vember have passed through some important changes ; but
they have been steady, as long as it was possible, to the
purpose ivhich first impressed on them a character not to he
mistaken.
" In their original plan, they comprehended not only
France and such allied or dependent powers as had adopted
the edict of Berlin, but such other nations as had merely ex-
cluded from their ports the commercial flag of England.
This ]3rodigious expansion of the system, was far beyond any
intelligible standard of retaliation; but it soon appeared
that neutrals might be permitted to traffic under certain re-
strictions, with all these different nations, provided they
would submit with a dependence truly colonial, to carry on
their trade through British ports, and to pay such duties as
the British government should think fit to impose, and such
charges as British agents and other British subjects might
be content to make.
" The United States abstained from this traffic, in which
they could not embark without dishonor ; and in 1809, the
system shrunk to narrower dimensions, and took the appear-
ance of an absolute prohibition of all commercial intercourse
with France, Holland, and the kingdom of Italy.
"The prohibition was absolute in appearance, but not
in fact. It had lost something of former exuberance, but
nothing of former phancy, and in the event was seen to
yield to ihe demands of one trade, while it prevented every
other.
264 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
" Controlled and relaxed and managed by licenses, it did
not, after a brief exhibition of impartial sternness, affect to
'' distress the enemy " by the occlusion of his ports, when the
commerce of England could advantageously find its way to
them. At length, however, this convenience seems to be en-
ioyed no longer, and the orders in council may apparently be
now considered (if indeed they ought not always to have
been considered) as affecting England with a loss as heavy
as that which they inflict on those whose rights they
violate. In such circumstances, if it be too much to expect
the credulity of 1807, it may yet be hoped, that the evidence
of the 23'^<^ciictt^ effect of the French repeal need not be very
strong to be satisfactory. It is however as strong as the
nature of such a case will admit, as a few observations will
show.
" On such an occasion it is no paradox to say, that the
want of evidence is itself evidence ; That certain decrees are
not in force, is proved by the absence of such facts as would
appear if they tvere in force. Every motive which can be
conjectured to have led to the repeal of the edicts, invites to
the full execution of that repeal, and no motive can be
imagined for a different course. These considerations are
alone conclusive.
" But ftirther, it is known that American vessels bound
confessedly to England, have, before the 1st of November,
been visited by French privateers, and suffered to j)ass upon
the foundation of the prospective repeal of the decree of
Berlin, and the proximity of the day when it would become
an actual one.
" If there are not even stronger facts to show that the
decree of 3Iilan is also withdrawn, your lordship can be at
no loss for the reason. It cannot be proved that an Ameri-
can vessel is practically held by France. Not to be de-
nationalized by British visitation, because your cruisers visit
only to capture, and compel the vessel visited to terminate
LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 265
her voyage not in France, but in England. You will not ask
for the issue of an experiment which yourselves interce23t,
nor complain that you have not received evidence, which is
not obtained because you have rendered it impossible. The
vessel which formed the subject of my note of the 8th inst.,
and another more recently seized as a prize, would, if they
had been suffered, as they ought, to resume their voyages after
having been stopped and examined by English cruisers,
have furnished on that point unanswerable proof ; and I
have reason to know, that precise offers have been made to
the British government to put to a practical test the dispo-
sition of France in this respect, and that those offers have
been refused. Your cruisers, however, have not been able -to
visit all American vessels bound to France, and it is under-
stood, that such as have arrived have been received with
friendship.
" I cannot quit this last question without entering my
protest against the pretension of the British government to
postpone the justice which it owes to my government and
country, for this tardy investigation of consequences. I am
not able to comprehend upon what the pretension rests, nor
to what limits the investigation can be subjected. If it were
even admitted that France was more emphatically bound to
repeal her almost nominal decrees than Great Britain to re-
peal her substantial orders (which will not be admitted),
what more can reasonably be required by the latter than has
been done by the former ? The decrees are officially de-
clared by the government of France to be repealed. They
were ineffectual as a material prejudice to England before
the declaration, and must be ineffectual since. There is
therefore nothing of substance for this dilatory inquiry,
which if once begun may be protracted without end, or at
least till the hour for just and i^rudent decision has passed.
But, if there were room to ajtprehend that the repealed de-
crees might have some operation in case the orders in coun-
266 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
cil were withdrawn, still, as there is no sudden and formida-
ble peril to which Great Britain could be exposed by that
operation, there can be no reason for declining to act at once
upon the declaration of France, and to leave it to the fu-
ture to try its sincerity, if that sincerity be suspected.
" I have thus disclosed to your lordship, with that frank-
ness which the times demand, my view of a subject deeply
interesting to our respective countries. The part which
Great Britain may act on this occasion cannot fail to have
important and lasting consequences, and I can only wish
that they may be good.
" By giving up her orders in council and the blockades,
to which my letter of the 21st of September relates, she has
nothing to lose in character or strength. B}^ adhering to
them, she will not only be unjust to others but unjust to
herself."
MR. PINKNEY TO LORD WELLESLEY.
"Great Cumberland Place, Jan. 14, 1811.
" My Lord : — I have received the letter which you did
me the honor to address to me on the 29th of last month,
and will not fail to transmit a copy of it to my government.
In the mean time I take the liberty to trouble you with the
following reply, which a severe indisposition has prevented
me from preparing sooner.
" The first paragraph seems to make it proper for me to
begin by saying, that the topics introduced into my letter of
the 10th of December, were intimately connected with its
principal subject, and fairly used to illustrate and explain
it ; and consequently, that if they had not the good fortune
to be acceptable to your lordship, the fault was not mine.
'' It was scarcely possible to speak with more moderation
than my paper exhibits, of that portion of a long list of in-
vasions of the rights of the United States, which it necessa-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 267
rily reviewed, and of the apparent reluctance of the British
government to forbear those invasions in future, I do not
know that I could more carefully have abstained from what-
ever might tend to disturb the spirit which your lordship
ascribes to his majesty's government, if, instead of being
utterly barren and unproductive, it had occasionally been
visible in some practical result, in some concession either to
friendship or to justice. It would not have been very sur-
prising, nor very culpable perhaps, if I had wholly forgotten
to address myself to a spirit of conciliation, which had met
the most equitable claims with steady and unceasing repul-
sion ; which had yielded nothing that could be denied ; and
had answered complaints of injury by multiplying their
causes. With this forgetfulness, however, I am not charge-
able ; for, against all the discouragements suggested by the
past, I have acted still upon a presumption that the dispo-
sition to conciliate, so often jirofessed, would finally be
proved by some better evidence than a perseverance in
oppressive novelties, as obviously incompatible with such a
disposition in those who enforce them, as in those whose
patience they continue to exercise.
" Upon the commencement of the second paragraph,
I must observe, that the forbearance which it announces
might have afforded some gratification, if it had been fol-
lowed by such admissions as my government is entitled to
expect, instead of a further manifestation of that disregard
of its demands, by which it has so long been wearied. It
has never been my practice to seek discussions, of which the
tendency is merely to irritate ; but I beg your lordship to be
assured, that I feel no desire to avoid them, whatever may
be their tendency, when the rights of my country require to
be vindicated against pretensions that deny, and conduct that
infringes them.
" If I comprehend the other parts of your lordship's
letter, they declare in effect, that the British government
268 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
will repeal nothing but the orders in council, and that it
cannot at present repeal even them, because in the first
place, the French government has required, in the letter of
the Duke of Cadore to General Armstrong, of the 5th of
August, not only that Great Britain shall revoke those
orders, but that she 'shall renounce certain principles of
blockade (supposed to be explained in the preamble to the
Berlin decree) which France alleges to be new ; and, in the
second place, because the American government has (as you
conclude) demanded the revocation of the British order of
blockade of May, 1806, as a practical instance of that same
renunciation, or, in other words, has made itself a party, not
openly indeed, but indirectly and covertly, to the entire re-
quisition of France, as you understand that requisition.
" It is certainly true that the American government has
required, as indispensable in the view of its acts of inter-
course and non-intercourse, the annulment of the British
blockade of May, 1806 ; and further, that it has through me
declared its confident expectation that other blockades of a
similar cliaracter (including that of tlie island of Zealand)
will be discontinued. But by what process of reasoning
your lordship has arrived at the conclusion, that the govern-
ment of the United States intended by this requisition to
become the champion of the edict of Berlin, to fashion its
principles by tliose of France while it affected to adhere to
its own, and to act upon some partnership in doctrines, which
it would fain induce you to acknowledge, but could not pre-
vail upon itself to avow, I am not able to conjecture. The
frank and honorable character of the American government
justifies me in saying that, if it had meant to demand of
Great Britain an abjuration of all such principles as the
French government may think fit to disapprove, it would not
have put your lordship to the trouble of discovering that
meaning by the aid of combinations and inferences discoun-
tenanced by the language of its minister, but would have
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 269
told you SO in explicit terms. What I have to request of
your lordship, therefore, is, that you will take our views and
principles from our own mouths, and that neither the Berlin
decree, nor any other act of any foreign state, may be made
to speak for us what we have not spoken for ourselves.
" The principles of blockade which the American govern-
ment professes, andttpon the foundation of which it has repeat-
edly protested against the order of May, 1806, and the other
kindred innovations of those extraordinary times, have
already been so clearly explained to your lordship, in my
letter of the 21st of September, that it is hardly possible to
read that letter and misunderstand them. Recommended
by the plainest considerations of universal equity, you will
find them supported with a strength of argument and a
weight of authority, of which they scarcely stand in need,
in the papers which will accompany this letter, or were trans-
mitted in that of September. I will not recapitulate what
I cannot improve ; but I must avail myself of this oppor-
tunity to caU your lordship's attention a second time, in a
particular manner, to one of the papers to which my letter
of September refers. I allude to the copy of an official note
of the 12th of April, 1804, from Mr. Merry to Mr. Madison,
respecting a pretended blockade of Martinique and Guada-
loupe. No comment can add to the value of that manly
and perspicuous exposition of the law of blockade, as made
by England herself in the maintenance of rules which have
been respected and upheld in all seasons and on aU occasions,
by the government of the United States. I wiU leave it,
therefore, to your lordship's consideration, with only this re-
mark, that, while that paper exists, it will be superfluous to
seek in any French document for the opinions of the Ameri-
can government on the matter of it.
" The steady fidelity of the government of the United
States to its opinions on that interesting subject is known to
every body. The same principles which are found in the
270 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
letter of Mr Madison to Mr. Thornton, of the 27th of Octo-
ber, 1803, ah'eady before j'oii, were asserted in 1799, by the
American Minister at this conrt, in his correspondence with
Lord Grenville, respecting the blockade of some of the ports
of Holland ; were sanctioned in a letter of the 20th of Sep-
tember, 1800, from the Secretary of State of the United
States to Mr. King, of which an extracit is enclosed ; were
insisted upon in repeated instructions to Mr. Monroe and the
special mission of 1806 ; have been maintained by the
United States against others as well as against England, as
will appear by the enclosed copy of instructions, dated the
21st of October, 1801, from Mr. Secretary Madison to Mr.
Charles Pinckuey, then American Minister at Madrid ; and
finally, were adhered to by the United States, when bellig-
erent, in the case of the blockade of Tripoli.
"A few words will give a summary of those principles ;
and when recalled to your remembrance, I am not without
hopes, that the strong grounds of law and right, on which
they stand, will be as apparent to your lordship as they are
to me.
"It is by no means clear that it may not fairly be con-
tended, on principle and early usage, that a maritime block-
ade is incomplete with regard to states at peace, unless the
place which it would affect is invested by land as well as by
sea. The United States, however, have called for the recog-
nition of no such rule. They appear to have contented them-
selves with urging in substance, that ports not actually
blockaded by a present, adequate, stationary force, employed
by the power which attacks them, shall not be considered as
shut to neutral trade in articles not contraband of war ; that,
though it is usual for a belligerent to give notice to neutral
nations when he intends to institute a blockade, it is possi-
ble that he may not act upon his intention at all, or that he
may execute it insufficiently, or that he may discontinue his
blockade, of which it is not customary to give any notice ;
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 271
that consequently the presence of the blockading force, is the
natural criterion by which the neutral is enabled to ascertain
the existence of the blockade at any given period, in like
manner as the actual investment of a besieged place, is the
evidence by which we decide whether the siege, which may
be commenced, raised, recommenced and raised again, is con-
tinued or not ; that of course a mere notification to a neutral
minister shall not be relied upon, as affecting, with know-
ledge of the actual existence of a blockade, either his govern-
ment or its citizens ; that a vessel cleared or bound to a
blockaded port, shall not be considered as violating in any
manner the blockade, unless, on her approach towards such
port, she shall have been previously warned not to enter it ;
that this view of the law, in itself perfectly correct, is pecu-
liarly important to nations situated at a great distance from
the belligerent parties, and therefore incapable of obtaining
other than tardy information of the actual state of their
ports ; that whole coasts and countries shall not be declared
(for they can never be more than declared) to be in a state
of blockade, and thus the right of blockade converted into
the means of extinguishing the trade of neutral nations ;
and lastly, that every blockade shall be impartial in its ope-
ration, or, in other words, shall not open and shut for the
convenience of the party that institutes it, and at the same
time repel the commerce of the rest of the world, so as to be-
come the odious instrument of an unjust monopoly, instead
of a measure of honorable war.
" These principles are too moderate and just to furnish
any motive to the British government for hesitating to re-
voke its orders in council, and those analogous orders of
blockade, which the United States expect to be recalled. It
can hardly be doubted that Great Britain will ultimately
accede to them in their fullest extent ; but if that be a san-
guine calculation (as I trust it is not), it is still incontrover-
tible, that a disinclination at this moment to acknowledge
272 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
them, can suggest no national inducement for declining to
repeal at once what every principle disowns, and what must
be repealed at last.
" With regard to the rules of blockades, which the
French government expects you to abandon, I do not take
upon me to decide whether they are such as your lordship
supposes them to be or not. Your view of them may be
correct ; but it may also be erroneous ; and it is wholly im-
material to the case between the United States and Great
Britain, whether it be the one or the other.
" As to such British blockades as the United States de-
sire you to relinquish, you will not, I am sure, allege that it
is any reason for adhering to them that France expects you
to relinquish others. If our demands are suited to the
measure of our own rights, and of your obligations as they
respect those rights, you cannot think of founding a rejection
of them upon any imputed exorbitance in the theories of the
French government, for which we are not responsible, and
with which we have no concern. If, when you have done
justice to the United States, your enemy should call upon
you to go farther, what shall jDrevent you from refusing ?
Your free agency will in no respect have been impaired.
Your case will be better, in truth and in the opinion of man-
kind ; and you will be, therefore, stronger in maintaining it,
provided that, in doing so, you resort only to legitimate
means, and do not once more forget the rights of others,
while you seek to vindicate your own.
" Whether France will be satisfied with what you may
do, is not to be kno^vn by anticii)ation, and ought not to be
a subject of inquiry. So vague a speculation has nothing
to do with your duties to nations at peace, and, if it had,
would annihilate them. It cannot serve your interests ; for
it tends to lessen the number of your friends, without add-
ing to your security against your enemies.
" You are required, therefore, to do right, and to leave
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 273
the consequences to the future, when by domg right you
have every thing to gain and nothing to lose.
^' As to the orders in council, which professed to be a re-
luctant departure from all ordinary rules, and to be justified
only as a system of retahation for a pre-existing measure of
France, their foundation (such as it was) is gone the mo-
ment that measure is no longer in operation. But the Ber-
lin decree is repealed : and even the llilcm decree, the suc-
cessor of your orders in council, is repealed also. Why is it
then, that your orders have outlived those edicts, and that
ther are still to oppress and harass as before ? Your lord-
ship answers this question explicitly enough, but not satis-
factorily. You do not allege that the French decrees are
not repealed ; but you imagine that the repeal is not to re-
main in force, unless the British government shall, in addi-
tion to the revocation of its orders in council, abandon its
system of blockade. I am not conscious of having stated,
as your lordship seems to think, that this is so, and I believe
in fact, that it is otherwise. Even if it were admitted, how-
ever, the orders in council ought nevertheless to be revoked.
Can 'the safety and honor of the British nation,' demand
that these orders shall continue to outrage the public law of
the world, and sport with the undisj^uted rights of neutral
commerce, after the pretext which was at first invented for
them is gone ? But you are menaced with the revived of
the French system, and consequently may again be furnished
with the same p^xtext ! Be it so ; yet still, as the system
and the pretext are at ^present at an end, so, of course, should
be your orders.
" According to your mode of reasoning, the situation of
neutral trade is hopeless indeed. Whether the Berlin decree
exists or not, it is equally to justify your orders in council.
You issued them before it was any thing but a shadow, and
by doing so gave to it all the substance it could ever claim.
It is at this moment nothing. It is revoked and has passed
18
274 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
away, according to your own admission. You clioose, how-
ever, to look for its reappearance ; and you make your own
expectation equivalent to the decree itself. Compelled to
concede that there is no anti-neutral French edict in opera-
tion upon the ocean, you think it sufficient to say that there
toill be such an edict, you know not when ; and in the mean
time you do all you can to verify your own prediction, by
giving to your enemy all the provocation in your power to
resume the decrees which he has abandoned.
" For my part, my Lord, I know not what it is that the
British government requires, with a view to what it calls its
safety and its ]tonoi\ as an inducement to rescind its orders
in council. It does not, I presume, imagine that such a
system will be suffered to ripen into law. It must intend to
relinquish it, sooner or later, as one of those violent experi-
ments for which time can do nothing, and to which submis-
sion will be hoped in vain. Yet even after the professed
foundation of this mischievous system is taken away, another
and another is industriously procured for it, so that no man
can tell at what time, or under what circumstances, it is
likely to have an end. When realities cannot be found, pos-
sibilities supply their place, and that, wliich was originally
said to be retahation for actual injury, becomes at last (if
such a solecism can be endured or imagined) retaliation for
apprehended injuries, which the future may or may not pro-
duce, but which it is certain have no existence now !
" I do not mean to grant, for I do not think, that the
edict of Berlin did at any time lend even a color of equity
to the British orders in council, with reference to the United
States ; but it might reasonably have been expected that
they, who have so much relied upon it as a justification,
would have suffered it and them to sink together. How this
is forbidden by your sa/et]/ or your Jiono7' remains to be ex-
plained ; and I am not willing to believe that either the one
or the other is inconsistent with the observance of substan-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 275
tial justice, and with the prosperity and rights of peaceful
states.
" Although your lordship has slightly remarked upon cer-
tain recent acts of the French government, and has spoken
in general terms of ' the system of violence- and injustice now
pursued by France,' as requiring ' some precautions of de-
fence on the part of Great Britain,' I do not perceive that
you deduce any consequence from these observations, in favor
of a perseverance in the orders in council. I am not myself
aware of any edicts of France which, now that the Berlin
and Milan decrees are repealed, affect the rights of neutral
commerce on the seas. And you will yourselves admit that
if any of the acts of the French government, resting on ter-
ritorial sovereignty, have injured, or shall hereafter injure,
the United States, it is for them, and for them only, to seek
redress. In like manner it is for Great Britain to determine
what precautions of defence those measures of France, which
you denominate unjust and violent, may render it expedient
for her to adopt. The United States have only to insist,
that a sacrifice of their rights shall not be among the number
of those precautious.
" In replying to that passage in your letter, which ad-
verts to the American act of non-intercourse, it is only ne-
cessary to mention the proclamation of the President of the
United States, of the 2d of November last, and the act of
congress which my letter of the 21st of September commu-
nicated, and to add that it is in the power of the British gov-
ernment to prevent the non-intercourse from being enforced
against Great Britain.
" Upon the concluding paragraph of your letter I will
barely observe, that I am not in possession of any document,
which you are likely to consider as authentic, showing that
the French decrees are 'absolutely revoked upon the single
condition of the revocation of the British orders in council,'
^t that the information, which I have lately received from
276 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the American Legation at Paris, confirms what I have
abeady stated, and I think proved to your lordship, that
those decrees are repealed and have ceased to have any effect.
I will now trespass on you no farther than to suggest, that
it would have given me sincere pleasure to be enabled to say
as much of the British orders in council, and of the blockades
from which it is impossible to distinguish them."
MR. PINKNEY TO LORD WELLESLEY.
"Geeat Cumberland Place, February llth, 181L
" My Lord : — Before I reply to your official communi-
cation of the 15th instant, you will perhaj)s allow me, in
acknowledging the receipt of the unofficial paper which ac-
companied it, to trouble you with a few words.
" From the appointment which you have done me the
honor to announce to me of a minister plenijwtentiary to the
United States, as well as from the language of your private
letter, I conclude that it is the intention of the British gov-
ernment to seek immediately those adjustments with Ame-
rica, without which, that appointment can produce no bene-
ficial effect. I presume, that, for the restoration of harmony
between the two countries, the orders in council will be re-
Hnquished witliout delay ; that the blockade of May 1806
will be annulled ; that the case of the Chesapeake will be
arranged in the manner heretofore intended, and, in general,
that all such just and reasonable acts will be done as are
necessary to make us friends.
" My motives will not, I am sure, be misinterpreted, if,
anxious to be enabled so to regulate my conduct in the ex-
ecution of my instructions as that the best results may be
accompHshed, I take the liberty to request such explana-
tions on these heads as your lordship may think fit to give
me.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 277
" I ought to add, that, as the levee of his royal highness
the prince regent has been postiDoned until Tuesday the 26th
instant, I have supposed that my audience of leave is post-
poned to the same day ; and that I have, on that ground,
undertaken to delay my reply to your official communication
until I receive an answer to tliis letter."
MR. SMITH TO ME. PINKNEY
"March Itk, 1811.
" Sir : — If, as signified in your letter of the 24th of No-
vember, you should persist in the desire of closing your mis-
sion at London and of returning to the United States, I have
to inform you that the President, from his resj^ect to your
wishes, cannot withhold his permission. You will accordingly
herewith receive a letter of leave, to be used in such case or
in the case pointed out in former instructions.
" It affords me pleasure, and at the same time real happi-
ness, in being authorized to assure you of the liigh sense en-
tertained by the President, of the distinguished talents and
faithfid exertions of which you have given so many j)roofs
during a period of public service, frequently not less embar-
rassing than interesting.
"A blank commission is also inclosed, to be filled, in case
of your return to the United States, with the name of some
suitable person as secretary of legation."
MR. PINKNEY TO THE MARQUIS DI CIRCELLO.
"Naples, August 24:tk, 1816.
" The undersigned, envoy extraordinary of the United
States of America, has already had the honor to mention to
his excellency the Marquis di Circello, secretary of state and
minister for foreign affairs of his majesty the king of the two
278 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
Sicilies, tte principal objects of his mission ; and he now in-
vites his excellency's attention to a more detailed and formal
exposition of one of those objects.
" The undersigned is sure that the appeal, which he is
about to make to the well known justice of his Sicilian
majesty, in the name and by the orders of his government,
will receive a deliberate and candid consideration ; and that,
if it shall appear, as he trusts it will, to be recommended by
those principles which it is the interest as well as the duty
of all governments to observe and maintain, the claim in-
volved in it will be admitted, effectually and promptly.
" The undersigned did but obey the instructions of the
President of the United States, when he assured his excel-
lency the Marquis di Circello, at their first interview, that
his mission was suggested by such sentiments towards his
Sicilian majesty as could not fail to be approved by him.
Those sentiments are apparent in the desire which the Pres-
ident has manifested, through the undersigned, that the
commercial relations between the territories of his majesty
and those of the United States should be cherished by re-
ciprocal arrangements, sought in the spirit of enlightened
friendship, and with a sincere view to such equal advantages,
as it is for nations to derive from one another. The repre-
sentations which the undersigned is commanded to make
upon the subject of the present note, will be seen by his
majesty in the same light. They show the firm rehance of
the President upon the disposition of the court of Naples
impartially to discuss and ascertain, and faithfully to dis-
charge its obligations toward foreign states and their citizens;
a reliance which the undersigned partakes with his govern-
ment ; and under the influence of which, he proceeds to
state the nature and grounds of the reclamation in ques-
tion.
" It cannot but be known to his excellency the Marquis
di Circello, that, on the 1st of July, 1809, the minister for
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 2V9
foreign aifairs of the then government of Naples, addressed
to Frederick Degan, Esq., then consul of the United States,
an official letter, containing an invitation to all American
vessels, having on board the usual certificates of origin and
other regular papers, to come direct to Naples with their
cargoes ; and that the same minister caused that invitation
to be pubHshed in every possible mode, in order that it might
come to the knowledge of those whom it concerned. It will
not be questioned that the promise of security necessarily
implied in this measure had every title, in the actual circum-
stances of Europe, to the confidence of distant and peaceful
merchants. The merchants of America, as was to have been
expected, did confide. Upon the credit and under the pro-
tection of that promise, they sent to Naples many valuable
vessels and cargoes, navigated and documented with scru-
pulous regularity, and in no respect obnoxious to molestation ;
but scarcely had they reached the destination to which they
had been allured, when they were seized, without distinction,
as prize, or as otherwise forfeited to the Neapolitan govern-
ment, upon pretexts the most fiivolous and idle. These
arbitrary seizures were followed, with a rapacious haste, by
summary decree, confiscating in the name and for the use
of the same government, the whole of the property which
had thus been brought within its grasj) ; and these decrees,
which wanted even the decent affectation of justice, were
immediately carried into execution against all the remon-
strances of those whom they oppressed, to enrich the treasmy
of the state.
" The undersigned persuades himself, that it is not in a
note addressed to the Marquis di CirceUo, that it is neces-
sary to enlarge upon the singularly atrocious character of
this procedure, for which no apology can be devised, and for
which none that is intelligible has hitherto been attempted.
It was, indeed, an undisguised abuse of power of wMch
iis 'thing could well enhance the deformity, but the studied
280 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
deception that preceded and j)repared it ; a deception which,
by a sort of treason against society, converted a proffer of
hospitality into a snare, and that salutary confidence, with-
out which nations and men must cease to have intercourse,
into an engine of plunder,
" The right of the innocent victims of this unequalled
act of fraud and rapine, to demand retribution, cannot be
doubted. The only question is, from whom are they entitled
to demand it ? Those, who at that moment ruled in Na-
ples, and were in fact and in the view of the world, the gov-
ernment of Naples, have passed away before retribution
could be obtained, although not before it was required ; and,
if the right to retribution regards only the persons of those
rulers as private and ordinary wrongdoers, the American
merchants, whom they deluded and despoiled in the garb and
with the instruments and for the purposes of sovereignty,
must despair for ever of redress.
" The undersigned presumes, that such is not the view
Avhich the present government will feel itself justified in
taking of this interesting subject ; he trusts that it will, on
the contrary, perceive that the claim which the injured mer-
chant was authorized to prefer against the government of
this country before the recent change, and which, but for
that change, must sooner or later have been successful, is
now a valid claim against the government of the same coun-
try, notwithstanding that change. At least, the undersigned
is not at present aware of any considerations which, applied
to the facts that characterize this case, can lead to a differ-
ent conclusion ; and certainly it would be matter for sincere
regret, that any consideration should be thought sufficient
to make the return of his Sicihan majesty's power fatal to
the rights of friendly strangers, to whom no fault can be
ascribed.
" The general principle that a civil society may contract
obligations through its actual government, whatever that
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 281
may be, and that it is not absolved fi-om them by reason
simply of a change of government or of rulers, is universally
received as incontrovertible. It is admitted, not merely by
writers on public law, as a speculative truth, but by states
and statesmen, as a practical rule ; and, accordingly, his-
tory is full of examples to prove, that the undisturbed pos-
sessor of sovereign power in any society, whether a rightful
possessor or not, with reference to other claimants of that
power, may not only be the lawful object of allegiance, but
by many of his acts, in his quality of sovereign de facto,
may bind the society, and those who come after him as
rulers, although their title be adverse to, or even better than
his own. The Marquis di Circello does not need to be in-
formed, that the earlier annals of England, in particular,
abound in instructions upon this head.
"With regard to just and beneficial contracts, entered
into by such a sovereign with the merchants of foreign na-
tions, or (which is the same thing), with regard to the deten-
tion and confiscation of their property for public uses, and
by his authority, in direct violation of a pledge of safety,
upon the faith of which that property arrived within the
reach of confiscation, this continuing responsibility stands
upon the plainest foundations of natural equity.
" It ^vill not be pretended, that a merchant is called upon
to investigate, as he prosecutes his traffic, the title of every
sovereign, with whose ports, and under the guarantee of
whose plighted word, he trades. He is rarely competent.
There are few in any station who are competent to an inves-
tigation so full of delicacy, so perplexed with facts and prin-
ciples of a peculiar character, far removed from the common
concerns of life. His predicament would be to the last de-
gree calamitous, if, in an honest search after commercial
profit, he might not take governments as he finds them, and
consequently rely at all times upon the visible, exclusive ac-
knowledged possession of supreme authority. If he sees all
282 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
the usual indications of established rule ; aU the distinguish-
ing concomitants of real undisputed power, it cannot be that
he is at his peril to discuss mysterious theories above his ca-
pacity or foreign to his pursuits, and moreover, to connect
the results of those speculations with events of which his
knowledge is either imperfect or erroneous. If he sees the
obedience of the people, and the acquiescence of neighboring
princes, it is impossible that it can be his duty to examine,
before he ships his merchandise, whether it be fit that these
should acquiesce, or those obey. If, in short, he finds
nothing to interfere with or qualify the dominion which the
head of the society exercises over it, and the domain which
it occupies, it is the dictate of reason, sanctioned by all ex-
perience, that he is bound to look no farther.
" It can be of no importance to him that, notwithstand-
ing aU these appearances announcing lawful rule, the mere
right to fiU the throne is claimed by, or even resides in,
another than the actual occupant. The latent right (sup-
posing it to exist), disjoined from and controverted by the
fact, is to him nothing while it continues to be latent. It
is only the sovereign in possession that it is in his power
to know. It is with him only that he can enter into engage-
ments. It is through him only that he can deal with the
society. And if it be true, that the sovereign in possession
is incapable, on account of a conflict of title between him and
another, who barely claims, but makes no efibrt to assert his
claim ; of pledging the public faith of the society and of the
monarch to foreign traders, for commercial and other objects,
we are driven to the monstrous conclusion, that the society
is, in efiect and indefinitely, cut off from all communication
with the rest of the world. It has, and can have, no organ
by which it can become accountable to, or make any contract
with foreigners, by which needful supplies may be invited
into its harbors, by which famine may be averted, or redun-
dant productions be made to find a market in the wants of
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 283
strangers. It is, in a wordj an outcast from the bosom of
the great community of nations, at the very moment too,
when its existence, in the form which it has assumed, may
every where be admitted. And, even if the dormant claim
to the throne should, at last, by a fortunate coincidence of
circumstances, become triumphant, and unite itself to the
possession, this harsh and palsying theory has no assurance
to give, either to the society or to those who may incline to
deal with it, that its moral capacity is restored, that it is
an outcast no longer, and that it may now, through the pro-
tecting will of its new sovereign, do what it could not do
before. It contains, of course, no adequate and certain pro-
vision against even the perpetuity of the dilemma wliich it
creates. If, therefore, a civil society is not competent, by
rules in entire possession of the sovereignty, to enter into all
such promises to the members of other societies as necessity
or convenience may require, and to remain unanswerable for
the breach of them, into whatsoever shape the society may
ultimately be cast, or into whatsoever hands the government
may ultimately fall ; if a sovereign, entirely in possession, is
not able, for that reason alone, to incur a just responsibility,
in his political or corporate charactei*, to the citizens of other
countries, and to transmit that responsibility, even to those
who succeed him by displacing him, it will be difficult to
show that the moral capacity of a civil society is any thing
but a name, or the responsibility of sovereigns any thing but
a shadow. And here the undersigned wiU take the Kberty
to suggest, that it is scarcely for the interest of sovereigns to
inculcate as a maxim, that their lost dominions can only be
recovered at the expense of the unoffending citizen of states
in amity, or, which is equivalent to it, to make that recovery
the practical consummation of intermediate injustice, by ut-
terly extinguishing the hope of indemnity and even the title
to demand it.
" The undersigned will now, for the sake of perspicuity
284 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and precision, recall to the recollection of his excellency the
Marquis di Circello, the situation of the government of Murat
at the epoch of the confiscation in question. Whatever
might be the origin or foundation of that government, it
had for some time been established. It had obtained such
obedience as in such times was customary, and had mani-
fested itself, not only by active internal exertions of legis-
lative and executive powers, but by important external
transactions with old and indisputably regular governments.
It had been (as long afterwards it continued to be) recognized
by the greatest potentates, as one of the European family
of states, and had interchanged with them ambassadors, and
other public ministers and consuls. And Great Britain, by
an order in council of the 26th of April, 1809, which modi-
fied the system of constructive blockade, promulgated by the
orders of November, 1807, had excepted the Neapolitan ter-
ritories, with other portions of Italy, from the operation of
that system, that neutrals might no longer be prevented
from trading with them.
" Such was the state of things when American vessels
were tempted into Naples, by a reliance upon the passports
of its government, to which perfidy had lent more than ordi-
nary solemnity, upon a declaration as explicit, as it was for-
mal and notorious, that they might come without fear, and
might depart in peace. It was under these circumstances,
that, instead of being permitted to retire with their lawful
gains, both they and their cargoes were seized and appro-
priated in a manner already related. The undersigned may
consequently assume, that if ever there was a claim to com-
pensation for broken faith, which survived the political power
of those whose iniquity produced it, and devolved in full
force upon their successors, the present claim is of that de-
scription.
" As to the demand itself, as it existed against the gov-
ernment of Murat, the Marquis di Circello will undoubtedly
LITE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 285
be the first to concede, not only that it is above reproach,
but that it rests upon grounds in which the civihzed world
has a deep and lasting interest. And with regard to the li-
ability of the present government as standing in the place of
the former, it may be taken as a corollary from that conces-
sion ; at least until it has been shown, that it is the natural
fate of obligations, so high and sacred, contracted by a gov-
ernment in the fuU and tranquil enjoyment of power, to per-
ish with the first revolution, either in form or rulers, through
which it may happen to pass ; or (to state the same proposi-
tion in different terms), that it is the natural operation of a
pohtical revolution in a state, to strip unfortunate traders,
who have been betrayed and plundered by the former sove-
reign, of all that his rapacity could not reach — the right of
reclamation.
" The wrong which the government of Murat inflicted
upon American citizens, wanted nothing that might give
to it atrocity, or effect, as a robbery introduced by treachery ;
but however pernicious or execrable, it was still reparable.
It left in the sufferers and their nation a right, which was not
likely to be forgotten or abandoned, of seeking and obtaining
ample redress, not from Mured simply (who individually was
lost in the sovereign), but from the government of the coun-
try, whose power he abused. By what course of argument
can it be proved, that this incontestable right, from which
that government could never have escaped, has been destroy-
ed by the reaccession of his SiciHan majesty, after a long in-
terval, to the sovereignty of the same territories ?
" That such a result cannot in any degree be inferred from
the misconduct of the American claimants, is certain ; for
no misconduct is imputable to them. They were wan-anted
in every view of the pubhc law of Europe, in holding com-
mercial communication with Naples in the jjredicament in
which they found it, and in trusting to the direct and au-
thentic assurances, which the government of the place af-
'286 XIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
feeted to tlirow over them as a shield against every danger.
Their shipments were strictly within the terms of those as-
surances ; and nothing was done, by the shippers or their
agents, by which the benefit of them might be lost or im-
paired.
" From what other source can such a result be drawn ?
Will it be said that the proceeds of the confiscations were
not applied to public purposes during the sovereignty of
Murat, or that they produced no public advantages, with
reference to which the present government ought to be lia-
ble ? The answer to such a suggestion is, that let the fact
be as it may, it can have no influence upon the subject. It
is enough that the confiscations themselves, and the promise
of safety which they violated, were acts of state, proceeding
from him who was then, and for several successive years, the
sovereign. The derivative liability of the present govern-
ment reposes, not upon the good, either public or private,
which may have been the fruit of such a revolting exhibition
of power, emancipated from all the restraints of principle,
but upon the general foundation, which the undersigned has
already had the honor to expose.
" To follow the proceeds of these spoliations into the pub-
lic treasury, and thence to all the uses to which they were
finally made subservient, can be no part of the duty of the
American claimant. It is a task which he has no means of
performing, and which, if performed by others, could neither
strengthen his case nor enfeeble it. And it may confidently
be insisted, not only that he has no concern with the partic-
ular application of these proceeds, but that, even if he had,
he would be authorized to rely upon the presumption, that
they were applied as public money to public ends, or left in
the public coffers. It must be remembered, moreover, that
whatever may have been the destiny of these unhallowed
spoils, they cannot well have failed to be instrumental in me-
liorating the condition of the country. They afforded extra-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 287
ordinary pecuniary means, which, as far as they extended,
must have saved it from an augumentation of its burdens ;
or hy reheving the ordinaiy revenue, made that revenue ad-
equate to various improvements, either of use or beauty^
which otherwise it could not have accomplished. The terri-
tories, therefore, under the sway of Murat, must be supposed
to have returned to his Sicilian majesty much less exhausted,
more embellished, and more prosperous, than if the property
of American citizens had not in the mean time been sacri-
ficed to cupidity and cunning. It must further be remem-
bered, that a part of that property was notoriously devoted
to the public service. Some of the vessels seized by the or-
ders of Murat, were, on account of their excellent construc-
tion, converted into vessels of war, and as such commissioned
by the government ; and the undersigned is informed that
they are now in possession of the officers of his Sicilian ma-
jesty, and used and claimed as belonging to him.
" The undersigned having thus briefly explained to the
Marquis di Circello, the nature of the claim which the gov-
ernment of the United States has commanded him to submit
to the reflection of the government of his Sicilian majesty,
forbears at present to multiply arguments in support of it.
He feels assured that the equitable disposition of his majesty
renders superfluous the further illustrations of which it is sus-
ceptible."
288 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
MISSOURI QUESTION.
It was a splendid spectacle the American Senate Cham-
ber presented, according to contemporaneous authority, the
day that William Pinkney arose to participate in this mo-
mentous discussion. The reputation of the speaker, just
transplanted from the forum to that garden of American
legislators, and the magnitude of the question involved, ex-
cited the public mind to the highest state of expectation,
and brought to the Capitol such a crowd as has rarely if ever
been gathered within its walls. Rufus King, an honored son
of New- York, a gentleman of enlarged views and command-
ing abilities, who had borne a conspicuous part in the foreign
service of his country as well as her deliberative comicils at
home, was then a Senator. He was a splendid e^^ecimen of
a man, and wore his varied honors with wondrous grace. —
Otis', Dana, Barbour, Macon and Burril, were his distin-
guished associates in this first deliberative assembly of the
world. Mr. King felt the grandeur and responsibility of the
occasion. The country he knew had a deep interest at stake.
He knew also that many eyes were upon him, that he was
now called upon to give to the countiy and the world the
closing speech of his life, and leave behind him the noblest
exposition he could of the constitution. That speech was
deUvered. Its eloquent warnings filled the land. Many
prided themselves upon this effort of the distinguished and
venerable champion of the North. A gentleman rose to re-
ply to it, who was not altogether a stranger to the Senate.
He came from an arena, on which his powers had been tested
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 289
by the strongest men of the land ; and if he stood not " quite
alone, he had confessedly no superior." Fresh, too, from a
diplomatic service, in which he had evinced his usual ability
and discretion, he brought with him to that Senate Chamber
a world-wide reputation. Already upon this very question,
his voice had been heard in a most admirable and powerful
speech ; so that, although little more than six weeks a mem-
ber of the body, we are justified in saying that he was not
altogether a stranger. New to the scene ; inexperienced in
senatorial hfe he was, but still not unknown. Deep was the
interest awakened in the public mind by this approaching
conflict, in which Maryland's favorite son was to measure a
lance with the veteran statesman of New- York. It was not
a mere personal feehng, not a vainglorious conflict of rival-
ly, that caused them to assume this antagonistic position.
That would have been unworthy of the Senate and the
country. It was a high constitutional question that divided
them. It was a grave conflict of opinion that made uj) the
struggle. Mr. King had chosen his position — selected his
ground — marshalled his arguments — arrayed his facts. He
came thoroughly equipped to the battle. The chosen rep-
resentatives of the views of a portion of the northern wing of
the confederacy, he was no mean antagonist. The North had
spoken, weU and powerfully, through him. Pinkney arose.
The occasion was one of imposing subhmity — the scene
worthy of the occasion, and the advocate, with whom he was
now brought in direct collision, worthy of both.
The talent, the taste, and beauty of the land were
there. Crowd upon crowd thronged the galleries. Every
nook and corner of the large, capacious haU was filled almost
to suffocation. Hundreds went away disappointed, unable
to catch a glimpse of the orator or a tone of his powerful
and melodious voice. All business was susijcnded in the
Lower House, for the representatives from all parts of the
Union participated to the full in the common desire to wit-
19
290 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ness this conflict of mind with mind. The whole country
was alive. The public peace and safety had been seriously
threatened. Mr. King's dark and dismal picturings had no
tendency to allay the popular apprehension or quiet the
pubhc agitation. Some hoped — others feared. All partook
more or less of the intense anxiety. Pinkney arose. The
very novelty of the scene, and the sight of a new antagonist
upon a field of such thrilling issues, where all his long che-
rished principles of constitutional interpretation so thor-
oughly coincided with the position he occupied, only tended
to give greater impetus and wider scope to the workings of
his giant intellect. It was in opposition that Mr. Pinkney
exhibited to most advantage his wondrous power. Not far
from the spot where Webster subsequently encountered
Hayne, he stood.. There was unusual fire in his fine blue
eye, and exulting hope. Strong in the confidence he reposed
in the views he entertained of the constitution, he was not
less strong in his reliance " upon the unsophisticated good
sense of the American people." Taking up that glorious
charter of our liberties, and following Mr. King step by step
in argument and illustration, he poured forth the treasures
of his mind with a keenness of analysis and a copiousness and
concentration of reasoning, that annihilated at once and for
ever the position of his opponent. This speech more than
sustained the reputation of the orator, and gratified to the
full the highest expectations of the audience. It was a sur-
prising combination of eloquence "and argument, beauty and
strength, amplitude and condensation. Although a close
and severe logical discussion, it rivetted attention, and
called forth as extraordinary panegyric as was ever vouch-
safed to any other parliamentary effort. That speech is a
sort of beacon light, by which men may make the most ex-
traordinary developments of oratorical power and ability of
argument. One of the most significant proofs of its power
was the fact, that Rufus King never answered it. I have
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY 291
been told, upon what I think good authority, that Mr. King
himself, with a magnanimity worthy of all praise, took occa-
sion to say that, during the time Mr, Pinkney was speaking,
he could not shake off the impression that he must be
wrong
A not less significant proof of the rare power of this
speech may be found in the fact, that even learned historians
at the North, blinded by prejudice, have conspired with
stump orators and pamphleteers to misrepresent grossly the
views expressed, and the line of argument pursued on that
occasion. Hildreth states (vol. 6, 689), that " Pinkney ap-
peared on the other side as leading orator for the extension
of slavery." And again, " that Pinkney and Clay, both of
whom had begun their political career with earnest efforts
for the curtailment and abolition of slavery in their respec-
tive States, were now among the most vehement advocates
for its extension all over the new West." Let any one read
the speech, and if he does not see through the thinly veiled
misrepresentation and misconception of this author, he must
be blind, indeed. Mr. Pinkney stood up in defence of the
constitution. He stood by the States, maintained their
original and indestructible equality, and denied that you
" could make the Union as to the new States what it is not
as to the old." He deprecated the introduction of such ex-
traneous matter as had been unwisely forced into the discus-
sion, and unwove the web so artistically wowen by the Sen-
ator from New- York. It was not a discussion on slavery at
all. It was a bare, naked, constitutional question, and as
such Mr. Pinkney treated it.
It excites a smile to read a little further on in the pages
of this recondite historian. " That the idea" that Congress
had no power to impose conditions in the admission of new
States, " was ridiculous." It may be that the principles of
constitutional law, so eloquently enforced by Mr. Pinkney in
this speech, and so extensively indorsed, are, after aU, mere
292 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
dreams of the imagination, sickly notions, whieli, after
stalking through the halls of legislation like ghosts, struck
northern statesmen dumb, may be dispelled by one wave of
the historic wand, never more to mislead or confound the
world. It may be that argument unanswered will sink be-
fore " assertion without proof" — but really, Mr. Hildreth
must excuse us if we prove a little refractory, and refuse to
acknowledge any idea ridiculous, which is sustained by such
power of argument and force of eloquence. When an histo-
rian manifests such carelessness (I had well nigh said, reck-
lessness of assertion), he must bear with us if we demur to
his decision of grave points of constitutional law, which he
has neither the capacity to decide, nor the authority.
We ask a perusal of the speech, and although it must
suffer from the imperfection of the report, we have no fears
concerning it. It is a gem of American eloquence, that has
lost nothing of its splendor in its passage through ^he cruci-
ble of an unsparing criticism : —
) SPEECH ON THE MISSOURI QUESTION.
As I ^m not a very frequent speaker in this Assembly,
and havo shown a desire, I trust, rather to listen to the wis-
dom of others, than to lay claim to superior knowledge by
underta|dng to advise, even when advice, by being seasona-
ble in f)oint of time, might have some chance of being profi-
table, ,you win, perhaps, bear with me if I venture to trouble
you once more on that eternal subject which has lingered
here, until aU its natural interest is exhausted, and every
topic connected mth it is literally worn to tatters. I shall,
I assure you, sir, speak with laudable brevity — not merely
on account of the feeble state of my health, and from some
rev(;rence for the laws of good taste which forbid me to speak
otherwise, but also from a sense of justice to those who honor
me with their attention. My single purpose, as I suggested
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 293
yesterday, is to subject to a friendly, yet close examination,
some portions of a speech, imposing certainly on account of
the distinguished quarter from whence it came — not very
imposing (if I may so say, without departing from that re-
spect which I sincerely feel and intend to manifest for emi-
nent abilities and long experience) for any otJier reason.
I believe, Mr. President, that I am about as likely to
retract an opinion which I have formed, as any member of
this body, who, being a lover of truth, inquires after it with
diligence before he imagines that he has found it ; but I sus-
pect that we are all of us so constituted as that neither ar-
gument nor declamation, levelled against recorded and pub-
lished decision, can easily discover a practicable avenue
through which it may hope to reach either our heads or our
hearts. I mention this, lest it may excite surprise, when I
take the liberty to add, that the speech of the honorable
gentleman from New- York, upon the great subject with
which it was principally occupied, has left me as great an
infidel as it found me. It is possible, indeed, that if I had
had the good fortune to hear that speech at an earlier stage
of this debate, when all was fresh and new, although I feel
confident that the analysis which it contained of the consti-
tution, illustrated as it was by historical anecdote rather than
by reasoning, would have been just as unsatisfactory to me
then as it is nou\ I might not have been altogether unmoved
by those warnings of approaching evil which it seemed to
intimate, especially when taken in connection with the obser-
vations of the same honorable gentleman on a .preceding day,
"that delays in disposing of this subject, in the manner he
desires, are dangerous, and that we stand on slippery ground."
I must be permitted, however (speaking only for myself),
to say, that the hour of dismay is passed. I have heard the
tones of the larum bell on all sides, until they have become
familiar to my ear, and have lost their power to appall, if,
indeed, they ever possessed it. Notwithstanding occasional
294 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
appearances of rather an unfavorable description, I have long
since persuaded myself that the Missouri Question, as it is
called, might be laid to rest, with innocence and safety, by
some conciliatory compromise at least, by which, as is our
duty, we might reconcile the extremes of conflicting views
and feelings, without any sacrifice of constitutional principle ;
and in any event, that the Union would easily and trium-
phantly emerge from those portentous clouds with which this
controversy is supposed to have en\droned it.
I confess to you, nevertheless, that some of the princi-
ples announced by the honorable gentleman from New- York,*
with an explicitness that reflected the highest credit on his
candor, did, when they were first presented, startle me not a
liitle. They were not perhaps entirely new. Perhaps I had
seen them before in some shadowy and doubtful shape,
'If shape it might be called, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb."
But in the honorable gentleman's S2)eech they were shadowy
and doubtful no longer. He exhibited them in forms so
boldly and accurately defined — with contours so distinctly
traced — with features so pronounced and striking, that I was
unconscious for a moment that they might be old acquaint-
ances. I received them as novi hospites within these walls,
and gazed upon them with astonishment and alarm. I have
recovered, however, thank God, from this paroxysm of terror,
although not from that of astonishment. I have sought
and fuund tranquillity and courage in my former consolatory
faith. My reliance is that these princii)le8 wiU obtain no
general currency ; for, if they should, it requires no gloomy
imagination to sadden the perspective of the future. My
reliance is upon the unsophisticated good sense and noble
spirit of the American people. I have what I may be al-
luwed to call a proud and patriotic trust, that they will give
countenance to no principles, which, if followed out to theii
* Mr. King.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 295
obvious consequences, will not only shake the goodly fabric
of the Union to its foundations, but reduce it to a melan-
choly ruin. The people of this country, if I do not wholly
mistake their character, are wise as well as virtuous. They
know the value of that federal association which is to them
the single pledge and guarantee of power and peace. Their
warm and pious affections will cling to it as to their only hope
of prosperity and happiness, in defiance of pernicious ab-
stractions, by whomsoever inculcated, or howsoever seductive
and alluring in their aspect.
Sir, it is not an occasion like this, although connected,
as contrary to all reasonable expectation it has been, with
fearful and disoro-anizincj theories, which would make our
estimates, whether fanciful or sound, of natural law, the
measure of civil rights and political sovereignty in the social
state, that can harm the Union. It must, indeed, be a
mighty storm that can push from its moorings this sacred
ark of the common safety. It is not every trifling breeze,
however it may be made to sob and howl in imitation of the
tempest, by the auxiliary breath of the ambitious, the timid,
or the discontented, that can drive this gallant vessel,
freighted with every thing that is dear to an American bo-
som, ujDon the rocks, or lay it a sheer hulk upon the ocean,
I may perhaps mistake the flattering suggestions of hope
(the greatest of all flatterers, as we are told), for the conclu-
sions of sober reason. Yet it is a pleasing error, if it be an
error, and no man shall take it from me. I will continue to
cherish the belief, in defiance of the public patronage given
by the honorable gentleman from New- York, with more
than his ordinary zeal and solemnity, to deadly speculations,
which, invoking the name of Grod to aid their faculties for
mischief, strike at all establishments, that the union of these
States is formed to bear up against far greater shocks than,
through all vicissitudes, it is ever likely to encounter. I
will continue to cherish the belief, that, although Hke all
296 LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNET.
other human institutions it may for a season be disturbed,
or sufi'er momentary eclipse by the transit across its disk of
some malignant planet, it possesses a recuperative force, a
redeeming energy in the hearts of the people, that will
soon restore it to its wonted calm, and give it back its ac-
customed splendor. On such a subject I will discard all
hysterical apprehensions^ — I will deal in no sinister auguries
— I will indulge in no hypochondriacal forebodings. I will
look forward to the future -^dth gay and cheerful hope ; and
will make the prospect smile, in fancy at least, until over-
whelming reality shall render it no longer possible.
I have said thus much. Sir, in order that I may be un-
derstood as meeting the constitutional question as a mere
question of interpretation, and as disdaining to press into
the service of my argument upon it prophetic fears of any
sort, however they may be countenanced by an avowal, for-
midable by reason of the high reputation of the individual
by whom it has been hazarded, of sentiments the most de-
structive, which, if not borrowed from, are identical with,
the worst visions of the political philosophy of France when
all the elements of discord and misrule were let loose upon
that devoted nation. I mean " the infinite perfectibility of
man and his institutions," and the resolution of every thing
into a state of nature. I have another motive, which, at
the risk of being misconstrued, I will declare without reserve.
With my convictions, and with my feelings, I never will
consent to hold confederated America as bound together by
a silken cord, which any instrument of mischief may sever,
to the view of monarchical foreigners, who look with a jealous
eye upon that glorious experiment which is now in progress
amongst us in favor of republican freedom. Let them
make such prophecies as they will, and nourish such feelings
as they may, I will not contribute to the fidfilment of the
former, nor minister to the gratification of the latter.
Sir, it was but the other day that we were forbidden
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 297
(properly forbidden I am sure, for the proliibition came from
you) to assume that there existed any intention to impose
a prospective restraint on the domestic legislation of Mis-
souri— a restraint to act upon it contemporaneously with its
origin as a State, and to continue adhesive to it through all
the stages of its political existence. We are now, however,
permitted to know that it is determined by a sort of political
surgery to amputate one of the limbs of its local sovereignty,
and thus mangled and disparaged, and thus only, to receive
it into the bosom of the constitution. It is now avowed
that, while Blaine is to be ushered into the Union with every
possible demonstration of studious reverence on our part,
and on hers with colors flying, and all the other graceful
accompaniments of honorable triumph, this ill-conditioned
upstart of the West, this obscure foundling of a wilderness
that was but yesterday the hunting-ground of the savage, is
to find her way into the American family as she can, with an
humiliating badge of remediless inferiority patched uj)on her
garments, with the mark of recent, qualified manumission
upon her, or rather with a brand upon her forehead to tell
the story of her territorial vassalage, and to perpetuate the
memory of her evil propensities. It is now avowed that,
while the robust district of Maine is to be seated by the side
of her truly respectable parent, co-ordinate in authority and
honor, and is to be dandled into that power and dignity of
which she does not stand in need, but which undoubtedly
she deserves, the more infantine and feeble Missouri is to be
repelled with harshness, and forbidden to come at all, imless
with the iron collar of servitude about her neck, instead of
the civic crown of republican freedom uj)on her brows, and
is to be doomed for ever to leading strings, unless she will
exchange those leading strings for shackles.
I am told that you have the power to estabhsh this odious
and revolting distinction, and I am refeiTed for the proofs
of that power to various parts of the constitution, but prin-
298 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
cipally to that part of it which authorizes the admission of
new States into the Union. I am myself of opinion that it
is in that part only that the advocates for this restriction
can, with any hope of success, apply for a license to impose
it; and that the efforts which have been made to find it in
other portions of that instrument, are too desperate to re
quire to be encountered. I shall, however, examine those
Other portions before I have done, lest it should be supposed
by those who have relied upon them, that what I omit to
answer I believe to be unanswerable.
The clause of the constitution which relates to the ad-
mission of new States is in these words : " The Congress
may admit new States into this Union," &c., and the advo-
cates for restriction maintain that the use of the word " may"
imports discretion to admit or to reject ; and that in this
discretion is wrapped up another — that of prescribing the
terms and conditions of admission in case you are willing to
admit : Cujus est dare ejus est disponere. I will not for the
present inquire whether this involved discretion to dictate
the terms of admission belongs to you or not. It is fit that
I should first look to the nature and extent of it.
I think I may assume that if such a power be any thing
but nominal, it is much more than adequate to the present
object; that it is a power of vast exj)ansion, to which human
sagacity can assign no reasonable limits ; that it is a capa-
cious reservoir of authority, from which you may take, in aU
time to come, as occasion may serve, the means of oppression
as well as of benefaction. I know that it professes at this
moment to be the chosen instrument of protecting mercy,
and would win upon us by its benignant smiles : but I know
too it can frown, and play the tyrant, if it be so disposed.
Notwithstanding the softness which it now assumes, and the
care with which it conceals its giant jiroportions beneath the
deceitful drapery of sentiment, when it next a2)pears before
you it may show itself with a sterner countenance and in
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 299
more awful dimensions. It is, to speak the truth, Sir, a
power of colossal size — if indeed it be not an abuse of lan-
guage to call it by the gentle name of a ijower. Sir, it is a
wilderness of powers, of which fancy in her happiest mood is
unable to perceive the far-distant and shadowy boundary.
Armed \\dth such a power, with religion in one hand and
philanthropy in the other, and followed with a goodly train
of public and private virtues, you may achieve more con-
quests over sovereignties not your own than falls to the com-
mon lot of even uncommon ambition. By the aid of such a
power, skilfully employed, you may " bridge your way" over
the Hellespont that separates State legislation from that of
Congress ; and you may do so for pretty much the same
purpose with which Xerxes once bridged his way across the
Hellespont, that separates Asia from Europe. He did so, in
the language of Milton, " the liberties of Greece to yoke."
You may do so for the analogous purpose of subjugating and
reducing the sovereignties of States, as yom- taste or conve-
nience may suggest, and fashioning them to your imperial
will. There are those in this house who appear to think,
and I doubt not sincerely, that the particular restraint now
under consideration is wise, and benevolent, and good : wise
as respects the Union — good as respects Missouri — ^benevo-
lent as respects the unhappy victims whom, with a novel
kindness, it would incarcerate in the South, and bless by de-
cay and extirpation. Let all such beware, lest in their desire
for the effect which they believe the restriction will produce,
they are too easily satisfied that they have the right to im-
pose it. The moral beauty of the present pm-pose, or even
its political recommendations (whatever they may be), can
do nothing for a power Hke this, which claims to prescribe
conditions ad libitum, and to be competent to this purpose,
because it is competent to all. This restriction, if it be not
smothered in its birth, will be but a small part of the pro-
geny of that prolific power. It teems with a mighty brood,
300 LIFE OF WILLIAM TINKNET.
of which this may be entitled to the distinction of comeliness
as well as of primogeniture. The rest may want the boasted
loveliness of their predecessor, and be even uglier than
"Lapland witches."
Perhaps. Sir, you will permit me to remind you that it
is almost always in company with those considerations that
interest the heart in some way or other, that encroachment
steals into the world. A bad purpose throws no veil over
the licenses of power. It leaves them to be seen as they are.
It affords them no protection from the inquiring eye of
jealousy. The danger is when a tremendous discretion like
the present is attempted to be assumed, as on this occasion,
in the names of pity, of rehgion, of national honor and
national prosperity ; when encroachment tricks itself out in
the robes of piety, or humanity, or addresses itself to pride
of country, with all its kindred passions and motives. It is
then that the guardians of the constitution are apt to slum-
ber on their watch, or, if awake, to mistake for lawful nile
some pernicious arrogation of power.
I would not discourage authorized legislation upon those
kindly, generous, and noble feehngs which Providence has
given to us for the best of purposes : but when power to act
is under discussion, I will not look to the end in view, lest I
should become indifferent to the lawfulness of the means.
Let us discard from this high constitutional question, aU
those extrinsic considerations which have been forced into
its discussion. Let us endeavor to approach it with a
philosophic impartiality of temper — with a sincere desire to
ascertain the boundaries of our authority, and a deter-
mination to keep our wishes in subjection to our allegiance
to the constitution.
Slavery, we are told in many a pamphlet, memorial, and
speech, with which the press has lately groaned, is a foul
blot upon our otherwise immaculate reputation. Let this
be conceded — yet you are no nearer than before to the con-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 301
elusion that you possess power which may deal with othei
subjects as effectually as with this. Slavery, we are further
told, with some pomp of metaphor, is a canker at the root
of all that is excellent in this repubUcan empire, a pestilent
disease that is snatching the youthful bloom from its cheek,
prostrating its honor and witheiing its strength. Be it so —
yet if you have power to medicine to it in the way j)roposed,
and in virtue of the diploma which you claim, you have also
power in the distribution of your political alexipharmics to
present the deadliest drugs to every temtory that would be-
come a State, and bid it drink or remain a colony for ever.
Slavery, we are also told, is now " rolUng onward with a rapid
tide towards the boundless regions of the West," threatening
to doom them to steriUty and sorrow, unless some potent
voice can say to it — thus far shalt thou go and no farther.
Slavery engenders pride and indolence in him who com-
mands, and inflicts intellectual and moral degradation on
him who serves. Slavery, in fine, is unchristian and abom-
inable. Sir, I shall not stop to deny that slavery is all this
and more ; but I shall not think myself the less authorized
to deny that it is for you to stay the com-se of this dark tor-
rent, by opposing to it a mound raised up by the labors of
this portentous discretion on the domain of others — a mound
which you cannot erect but thi'ough the instrumentaHty of a
trespass of no ordinary kind — not the comparatively inno-
cent trespass that beats down a few blades of grass which
the first kind sun or the next refreshing shower may cause
to spring again, but that which levels with the ground the
lordliest trees of the forest, and claims immortality for the
destruction which it inflicts.
I shall not, I am sure, be told that I exaggerate this
power. It has been admitted here, and elsewhere, that I
do not. But I want no such concession. It is manifest,
that as a discretionary power it is every thing or nothing —
that its head is in the clouds, or that it is a mere figment of
302 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
entliiisiastic speculation — that it has no existence, or that it
is an alarming vortex ready to swallow up all such portions
of the sovereignty of an infant State, as you may think fit
to cast into it as preparatory to the introduction into the
Union of the miserable residue. No man can contradict me
when I say, that if you have this power, you may squeeze
down a new-born sovereign State to the size of a pigmy, and
then taking it betw^een finger and thumb, stick it into some
niche of the Union, and still continue by way of mockery to
call it a State in the sense of the constitution. You may
waste it to a shadow, and then introduce it into the society
of flesh and blood, an object of scorn and derision. You
may sweat and reduce it to a thing of skin and bone, and
then place the ominous skeleton beside the ruddy and health-
ful members of the Union, that it may have leisure to mourn
the lamentable difference between itself and its companions,
to brood over its disastrous promotion, and to seek in justifi-
able discontent, an opiwrtunity for separation, and insurrec-
tion, and rebellion. What may you not do by dexterity and
perseverance with this terrific power ? You may give to a
new State, in the form of terms which it cannot refuse, (as
I shall show you hereafter,) a statute book of a thousand vol-
umes— providing not for ordinary cases only, but even for
possibilities ; you may lay the yoke, no matter whether Hght
or heavy, upon the necks of the latest posterity ; you may
send this searching power into every hamlet for centuries to
come, by laws enacted in the spirit of prophecy, and regulat-
ing all those dear relations of domestic concern, which be-
long to local legislation, and which even local legislation
touches with a delicate and sparing hand. This is the first
inroad. But will it be the last ? This pro^'ision is but a
pioneer for others of a more desolating aspect. It is the fatal
bridge of which Milton speaks, and when once firmly built,
what shall hinder you to pass it when you please, for the
purpose of plundering power after power at the expense of
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 303
new States, as you will still continue to call them, and rais-
ing up prospective codes, irrevocable and immortal, wHch
shall leave to those States the empty shadows of domestic
sovereignty, and convert them into petty pageants, in them-
selves contemptible, but rendered infinitely more so by the
contrast of their humble faculties, with the proud and ad-
mitted pretensions of those who, having doomed them to the
inferiority of vassals, have condescended to take them into
their society and under their protection ?
I shall be told, perhaps, that you can have no tempta-
tion to do all, or any part of this, and, moreover, that you
can do nothing of yourselves, or, in other words, without the
concurrence of the new State. The last of these sugges-
tions I shall examine by and by. To the first I answer, that
it is not incumbent upon me to prove that this discretion
will be abused. It is enough for me to prove the vastness of
the power as an inducement to make us pause upon it, and
to inquire with attention, whether there is any apartment in
the constitution large enough to give it entertainment. It
is more than enough for me to show that vast as is this power,
it is with reference to mere territories an irresponsible power.
Power is irresponsible when it acts upon those who are de-
fenceless against it, who cannot check it, or contribute to check
it, in its exercise, who can resist it only by force. The terri-
tory of Missouri has no check upon this power. It has no share
in the government of the Ucion. In this body it has no repre-
sentative. In the other House it has, by com-tesy, an agent,
who may remonstrate, but cannot vote. That such an uTe-
sponsible power is not likely to be abused, who will undertake
to assert ? If it is not, "Experience is a cheat, and fact a har. "
The power which England claimed over the colonies, was such
a power, and it was abused — ^and hence the revolution. Such
a power is always perilous to those who wield it, as weU as
to those on whom it is exerted. Oppression is but another
name for irresponsible power, if history is to be trusted.
304 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
The free spirit of our constitution and of our people, is
no assurance against the propension of unbridled power to
abuse, when it acts upon colonial dependents rather than
upon ourselves. Free States, as well as despots, have op-
pressed those whom they were bound to foster — and it is the
nature of man that it should be so. The love of power, and
the desire to display it when it can be done with impunity,
is inherent in the human heart. Turn it out at the door,
and it will in again at the window. Power is displayed in
its fullest measure, and with a captivating dignity, by re-
straints and conditions. The pruritas leges ferendi is an
universal disease ; and conditions are laws as far as they go.
The vanity of human wisdom, and the presumption of hu-
man reason, are proverbial. This vanity and this presump-
tion, are often neither reasonable nor wise. Humanity, too,
sometimes plays fantastic tricks with power. Time, moreover,
is fruitful in temptations to convert discretionary power to
all sorts of purposes.
Time, that withers the strength of man, and " strews
around him like autumnal leaves, the ruins of his i)roudest
monuments," produces great vicissitudes in modes of think-
ing and feeling. It brings along with it, in its progress,
new circumstances — new combinations and modifications of
the old — generating new views, motives, and caprices — new
fanaticisms of endless variety — in short, new every thing.
We ourselves are always changing — and what to-day we
have but a small desire to attempt, to-morrow becomes the
object of our passionate aspirations.
There is such a thing as enthusiasm, moral, religious, or
political, or a compound of all three ; — and it is wonderful
what it will attempt, and from what imperceptible beginnings
it sometimes rises into a mighty agent. Rising from some
obscure or unknown som-ce, it first shows itself a petty
rivulet, which scarcely murmurs over the pebbles that ob-
struct its way — then it swells into a fierce torrent, bearing
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 305
all before it — and then again, like some mountain stream,
which occasional rains have precipitated upon the valley, it
sinks once more into a rivulet, and finally leaves its channel
dry. Such a thing has happened. I do not say that it is
now happening. It would not become me to say so. But if
it should occur, woe to the unlucky territory that should be
struggling to make iti", \iay into the Union at the moment
when the opposing inundation was at its height, and at the
same instant, this wide Mediterranean of discretionary pow-
ers, which it seems is ours, should open up all its sluices, and
with a consentaneous rush, mingle Avith the turbid waters of
the others.
" New States may be admitted by the Congress into this
Union." It is objected that the word " may" imports power,
not obligation — a right to decide — a discretion to grant or
refuse.
To this it might be answered, that poiver is duty on
many occasions. But let it be conceded that it is discre-
tionary. What consequence foUows ? A power to refuse,
in a case like this, does not necessarily involve a power to
exact terms. You must look to the result, which is the de-
clared object of the power. Whether you will arrive at it,
or not, may dej)end on your will ; but you cannot compro-
mise with the result intended and professed.
What then is the professed result ? To admit a State
into this Unio7i.
What is that Union ? A confederation of States, equal
in sovereignty — capable of every thing which the constitu-
tion does not forbid, or authorize Congress to forbid. It is
an equal Union, between parties equally sovereign. They
were sovereign, independently of the Union. The object of
the Union was common protection for the exercise of already
existing sovereignty. The parties gave up a portion of that
sovereignty to insure the remainder. As far as they gave it
20
306 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
up, by the commou compact, they have ceased to be sove-
reign. The Union provides the means of defending the resi-
due : and it is into that Union that a new State is to come.
By acceding to it, the new State is placed on the same foot-
ing with the original States. It accedes for the same
purpose, i. e., protection for its unsurrendered sovereignty.
If it comes in shorn of its beams — crippled and disparaged
beyond the original States, it is not into the original Union
that it comes. For it is a different sort of Union. The
first was Union inter pares : This is a Union between
difiparates — between giants and a dwarf — between power and
feebleness — between full proportioned sovereignties, and a
miserable image of power — a thing which that very Union
has shrunk and shrivelled from its just size, instead of pre-
serving it in its true dimensions.
It is into " this Union," i. e., the Union of the Fede-
ral Constitution, that you are to admit, or refuse to admit.
You can admit into no other. You cannot make the Union,
as to the new State, what it is not as to the old ; for then it
is not tJiis Union that you ojien for the entrance of a new
party. If you make it enter into a new and additional com-
pact, is it any longer the same Union ?
We are told that admitting a State into the Union is
a compact. Yes — but what sort of a compact ? A compact
that it shall be a member of the Union, as the constitution
has made it. You cannot new fashion it. You may make
a compact to admit, but when admitted, the original com-
pact prevails. The Union is a compact, with a provision of
political power and agents for the accomplishment of its ob-
jects. Vary that compact as to a new State — ^give new
energy to that political power, so as to make it act with
more force upon a new State than upon the old — make the
will of those agents more eifectually the arbiter of tlie fate
of a new State than of the old, and it may be confidently
said that the new State has not entered into this Union, but
LIFE OP WILLIAM PIKKNEY. 307
into anotlier Union. ' How far the Union has been varied is
another question. But that it has been varied is clear.
If I am told, that by the bill relative to Missouri, you do
not legislate upon a new State — I answer that you do ; and
I answer further, that it is immaterial whether you do or not.
But it is upon Missouri, as a State, that your terms and
conditions are to act. Until Missouri is a State, the terms
and conditions are nothing. You legislate in the shape of
terms and conditions, prospectively ; and you so legislate
upon it, that when it comes into the Union it is to be bound
by a contract degrading and diminishing its sovereignty,
and is to be stripped of rights which the original parties to
the Union did not consent to abandon, and which that
Union (so far as depends upon it) takes under its protection
and guarantee.
Is the right to hold slaves a right which Massachusetts
enjoys ? If it is, Massachusetts is under this Union in a dif-
ferent character from Missouri. The compact of Union for
it, is different from the same compact of Union for Missouri.
The power of Congress is different — ;every thing which de-
pends upon the Union is, in that respect, different.
But it is immaterial whether you legislate for Missouri as
a State or not. The effect of your legislation is to bring it
into the Union with a portion of its sovereignty taken away.
But it is a State which you are to admit. What is a
State in the sense of the constitution ? It is not a State in
the general — but a State as you find it in the constitution.
A State, generally, is a body politic or independent political
society of men. But the State which you are to admit must
be more or less than this political entity. What must it be ?
Ask the constitution. It shows what it means by a State
by reference to the parties to it. It must be such a State
as Massachusetts, Virginia, and the other members of the
American confederacy — a State with full sovereignty, except
as the constitution restricts it.
308 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
It is said that the word may ncessarily implies the right
of prescribing the terms of admission. Those who maintain
this are aware that there are no express words (such as U2Jon
eiicJi terms and conditions as Congress shall think Jit), words
which it was natural to exj)ect to find in the constitution, if
the effect contended for were meant. They put it, there-
fore, on the word may, and on that alone.
Give to that word all the force you please — what does it
import ? That Congress is not hound to admit a new State
into this Union. Be it so for argument's sake. Does it
follow that when you consent to admit into this Union a new
State, you can make it less in sovereign power than the ori-
ginal parties to that Union — that you can make the Union
as to it what it is not as to them — that you can fashion it to
your liking by compelling it to purchase admission into an
Union by sacrificing a portion of that power which it is the
sole purpose of the Union to maintain in all the plenitude
which the Union itself does not impair ? Does it follow,
that you can force upon it an additional compact not found
in the compact of Union .^ that you can make it con^e into
the Union less a State, in regard to sovereign power, than its
fellows in that Union .^ that you can cripple its legislative
competency (beyond the constitution which is the pact of
Union, to which you make it a party as if it had been origi-
nally a party to it), by what you choose to call a condition,
but which, whatever it may be called, brings the new gov-
ernment into the Union under new obligations to it, and
with disparaged power to be protected by it ?
In a word, the whole amount of the argument on the
other side, is — that you may refuse to admit a new State,
and that therefore, if you admit, you may prescribe the
terms.
The answer to that argument is — that even if you can re-
fuse, you can prescribe no terms which are inconsistent with
the act you are to do. You can prescribe no condition
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 309
which, if carried into effect, would make the new State
less a sovereign State than, under the Union as it stands, it
would he. You can prescribe no terms which will make the
compact of Union between it and the original States essen-
tially different from that compact among the original States.
You may admit, or refuse to admit : but if you admit, you
must admit a State in the sense of the constitution — a State
with all such sovereignty as belongs to the original parties :
and it must be into this Union that you are to admit it, not
into a Union of your own dictating, formed out of the exist-
ing Union by qualifications and new compacts, altering its
character and effect, and making it fall short of its protect-
ing energy in reference to the new State, whilst it acquires
an energy of another sort — the energy of restraint and de-
struction.
I have thus endeavored to show, that even if you have a
discretion to refuse to admit — you have no discretion, if you
are willing to admit, to insist upon any terms that impair
the sovereignty of the admitted State as it would otherwise
stand in the Union by the constitution which receives it into
its bosom. To admit or not, is for you to decide. Admis-
sion once conceded, it follows as a corollary that you must
take the new State as an equal companion with its fellows —
that you cannot recast or new model the Union 2^^'0 hac vice
— but that you must receive it into the actual Union, and
recognize it as a parcener in the common inheritance, with-
out any other shackles than the rest have, by the constitu-
tion, submitted to bear — without any other extinction of
power than is the work of the constitution acting indiffer-
ently upon all.
I may be told, perhaps, that the restriction, in this case,
is the act of Missouri itself — that your law is nothing with-
out its consent, and derives its efficacy from that alone.
I shall have a more suitable occasion to speak on this
topic hereafter, when I come to consider the treaty which
310 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PIXKNEY,
ceded Louisiana to the United States. But I will say a few
words upon it now, of a more general application than it will,
in that branch of the argument, be necessary to use.
A territory cannot surrender to Congress hj anticipa-
tion, the whole, or a part, of the soyereign power^ which,
by the constitution of the Union, will belong to it when it
becomes a State and a member of the Union. Its consent
is, therefore, nothing. It is in no situation to make this sur-
render. It is under the goyemment of Congress ; if it can
barter away a part of its soyereignty, by anticipation, it can
do so as to the whole. For where will you stop ? If it does
not cease to be a State, in the sense of the constitution, with
only a certain portion of soyereign power, what other smaller
portion "will have that effect ? If you depart from the
standard of the constitution, i. e., the quantity of domestic
soyereignty left in the first contracting States, and secured
by the original compact of Union, where wdl you get ano-
ther standard ? Consent is no standard, — for consent may
be gained to a surrender of all.
No State or Territory, in order to become a State, can
aUenate or surrender any portion of its sovereignty to the
Union, or to a sister State, or to a foreign nation. It is un-
der an incapacity to disqualify itself for all the purposes of
government left to it in the constitution, by stripping itself
of attributes which arise from the natural equality of States,
and which the constitution recognizes, not only because it
does not deny them, but presumes them to remain as they
exist by the law of nature and nations. Inequahty in the
sovereignty of states is unnatural, and repugnant to all the
principles of that law. Hence we find it laid down by the
text writers on pubHc law, that " Xature has established a
perfect equality of rights between independent nations " —
and that " Whatever the quality of a tree sovereign nation
gives to one, it gives to another." * The constitution of the
♦ VattfcL Droit des Gens, liv. 2, c. 3. s. 36.
LIFE OF WILLIA3I PINKXEY. 311
United States proceeds upon the truth, of this doctrine. It
takes the States as it finds them, free a^T) sovebeign at.tke
BY NATURE. It Tcceives from them portions of their power
for the general good, and provides for the exercise of it by
organized political bodies. It diminishes the individual
sovereignty of each, and transfers, what it subtracts, to the
government which it creates : it takes from all ^ike, and
leaves them relatively to each other equal in sovereign power.
The honorable gentleman from Xew-York has put the
constitutional argument altogether upon the clause relative
to admission of new States into the Union. He does not
pretend that you can find the power to restrain, in any ex-
tent, elsewhere. It follows that it is not a particular power
to impose this restriction, but a power to impose restrictions
ad libitum. It is competent to this, because it is competent
to every thing. But he denies that there can be any power
in man to hold in slavery his feUow-creature, and argues,
therefore, that the prohibition is no restraint at all, since it
does not interfere with the sovereign powers of ^SJissourL
One of the most signal errors with which the argument
on the other side has abotmded, is this of considering the pro-
posed restriction as it' levelled at the introduction or estab-
lishment of slavery. And hence the vehement declamation,
which, among other things, has informed us that slavery orig-
inated in fraud or ^•iolence,
The truth is, that the restriction has no relation, real or
pretended, to the right of making slaves of those who are free j
or of introducing slavery where it does not already exist. It
applies to those who are admitted to be already slaves, and
who (with their posterity) would continue to be slaves if they
should remain where they are at present : and to a place
where slaveiy already exists by the local law. Their civil
condition wiU not be altered by their removal fix)m Virginia,
or Carolina, to Missouri. They wiU not be more slaves than
312 XIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
tliey now are. Their abode, indeed, will be different, but
their bondage the same. Their numbers may possibly be
augmented by the diffusion, and I think they will. But this
can only happen because their hardships will be mitigated,
and their comforts increased. The checks to population,
which exist in the older States will be diminished. The
restriction, therefore, does not prevent the establishment of
slavery, either with reference to persons or place ; but simply
inhibits the removal from place to place (the law in each
being the same) of a slave, or make his emancipation the
consequence of that removal. It acts professedly merely on
slavery as it exists, and thus acting restrains its present law-
ful effects. That slavery, like many other human institu-
tions, originated in fraud or violence, may be conceded : but,
however it originated, it is established among us, and no
man seeks a further establishment of it by new importations
of freemen to be converted into slaves. On the contrary, aU
are anxious to mitigate its evils by all the means within the
reach of the appropriate authority, the domestic legislatures
of the different States.
It can be nothing to the purpose of this argument, there-
fore, as the gentlemen themselves have shaped it, to inquire
what was the origin of slavery. What is it now, and who
are they that endeavor to innovate upon what it now is (the
advocates of this restriction who desire change by unconsti-
tutional means, or its ojiponcnts who desire to leave the
whole matter to local regulation), are the only questions
worthy of attention.
Sir, if we too closely look to the rise and progress of long
sanctioned establishments and unquestioned rights, we may
discover other subjects than that of slavery, with which fraud
and violence may claim a fearful connection, and over which
it may be our interest to throw the mantle of oblivion. What
was the settlement of our ancestors in this country but an
invasion of the rights of the barbarians who inhabited it ?
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 313
That settlement, with slight exceptions, was effected by the
slaughter of those who did no more than defend their native
land against the intruders of Europe, or by unequal compacts
and purchases, in which feebleness and ignorance had to deal
with power and cunning. The savages who once built their
huts where this proud Capitol, rising from its recent ashes,
exemplifies the sovereignty of the American people, were
swept away by the injustice of our fathers, and their domain
usurj)ed by force, or obtained by artifices yet more criminal.
Our continent was full of those aboriginal inhabitants.
Where are they or their descendants .? Either " with years
beyond the flood," or driven back by the swelling tide of our
population from the borders of the Atlantic to the deserts of
the West. You follow still the miserable remnants, and
make contracts with them that seal their ruin. You pur-
chase their lands, of which they know not the value, in order
that you may sell them to advantage, increase your treasure,
and enlarge your empire. Yet farther — you pursue as they
retire ; and they must continue to retire, until the Pacific
shall stay their retreat, and compel them to pass away as
a dream. Will you recur to those scenes of various iniquity
for any other purpose than to regret and lament them ?
Will you pry into them, with a view to shake and impair
your rights of property and dominion ?
But the broad denial of the sovereign right of Missouri,
if it shall become a sovereign State, to recognize slavery by
its laws, is rested upon a variety of grounds, all of which I
will examine.
It is an extraordinary fact, that they who urge this denial
with such ardent zeal, stop short of it in their conduct.
There are now slaves in Missouri whom they do not insist
upon delivering from their chains. Yet if it is incompetent
to sovereign power to continue slavery in Missouri, in respect
of slaves who may yet be carried thither, show me the power
that can continue it in respect of slaves who are there already.
314 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
Missouri is out of the old limits of the Union, and beyond
those limits, it is said, we can give no countenance to slavery,
if we can countenance or tolerate it any where. It is plain,
that there can be no slaves beyond the Mississippi at this
moment but in virtue of some power to make or keep them
so. What sort of power was it that has made or kept them
so ? Sovereign powder it could not be, according to the
honorable gentlemen from Pennsylvania and New Hamp-
sliire : *••" and if sovereign power is unequal to sucli a purpose,
less than sovereign j^ower is yet more unequal to it. The
laws of Spain and France could do nothing — the laws of the
territorial government of Missouri could do nothing towards
such a result, if it be a result which no laws, in other words,
no sovereignty, could accomplish. The treaty of 1803 could
do no more, in this view, than the laws of France, or Spain,
or the territorial government of Missouri. A treaty is an act
of sovereign power, taking the shape of a compact between the
parties to it ; and that which sovereign power cannot reach at
all, it cannot reach by a treaty. Those who are now held in
bondage, therefore, in Missouri, and their issue, are entitled to
be free, if there be any truth in the doctrine of the honorable
gentlemen ; and if the proposed restriction leaves all such in
slavery, it thus discredits the very foundation on which it re-
poses. To be inconsistent is the fate of false principles — but
this inconsistency is the more to be remarked, since it cannot
be referred to mere considerations of policy, without admit-
ting that such considerations may be preferred (without a
crime) to what is deemed a jjaramount and indispensable
duty.
It is here, too, that I must be permitted to observe, that
the honorable gentlemen have taken great pains to show
that this restriction is a mere work of supererogation by the
principal argument on which they rest the proof of its pro-
priety. Missouri, it is said, can have no power to do what
* Mr. Roberts, Mr. Lowrie, and Mr. Morril.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 315
the restriction would prevent. It would be void, therefore,
without the restriction. Why then, I ask, is the restriction
insisted upon ? Eestraint implies that there is something
to be restrained : But the gentlemen justify the restraint
by showing that there is nothing upon which it can operate !
They demonstrate the wisdom and necessity of restraint, by
demonstrating that with or without restraint, the subject is
in the same predicament. This is to combat with a man
of straw, and to put fetters upon a shadow.
The gentlemen must, therefore, abandon either their doc-
trine or their restriction, their argument or their object, for
they are directly in conflict, and recijDrocally destroy each other.
It is evident, that they will not abandon their object, and of
course, I must believe, that they hold their argument in as
little real estimation as I myself do. The gentlemen can
scarcely be sincere believers in their own principle. They
have apprehensions, which they endeavor to conceal, that
Missouri, as a State, will have power to continue slavery
within its limits ; and if they will not be offended, I will
venture to compare them, in this particular, with the duelist
in Sheridan's comedy of the Rivals, who affecting to have
no fear whatever of his adversary, is, nevertheless, careful to
admonish Sir Lucius to hold him fast.
Let us take it for granted, however, that they are in
earnest in their doctrine, and that it is very necessary to im-
pose what they prove to be an unnecessary restraint : how do
they support that doctrine ?
The honorable gentleman on the other side'''" has told us,
as a proof of his great position (that man cannot enslave his
fellow man, in which is implied that all laws upholding slave-
ry are absolute nullities), that the nations of antiquity as
well as of modern times have concurred in laying down that
position as incontrovertible.
*Mr. Kinar.
316 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
He refers us in the first place to the Koman law, in
which he finds it laid down as a maxim : Jure naturali om-
nes Jiomines ah initio liberi nascehantur. From the manner
in which this maxim was pressed upon us, it would not read-
ily have been conjectured that the honorable gentleman who
used it had borrowed it from a slave-holding empire, and stiU
less from a book of the Institutes of Justinian, which treats
of slavery, and justifies, and regulates it. Had he given us
the context, we should have had the modifications of which
the abstract doctrine was in the judgment of the Roman law
susceptible. We should have had an explanation of the
competency of that law, to convert, whether justly or un-
justly, freedom into servitude, and to maintain the right of
a master to the service and obedience of his slave.
The honorable gentleman might also have gone to Greece
for a similar maxim and a similar commentary, speculative
and practical.
He next refers us to Magna Charta. I am somewhat famil-
iar with Magna Charta, and I am confident that it contains no
such maxim as the honorable gentleman thinks he has discov-
ered in it. The great charter was extorted from John, and
his feeble son and successor, by haughty slave-holding barons,
who thought only of themselves and the commons of Eng-
land (then inconsiderable), w^hom they wished to enlist in
their eflbrts against the crown. There is not in it a single
word which condemns civil slavery. Freemen only are the ob-
jects of its protecting care, "Nullus liber homo," is its
phraseology. The serfs, who were chained to the soil — the
villeins regardant and in gross, were left as it found them.
All England was then full of slaves, whose posterity would
by law remain slaves as with us, excejst only that the issue
followed the condition of the father instead of the mother.
The rule was " Partus sequitur patrem " — a rule more favor-
able, undoubtedly, from the very precariousness of its apjiH-
cation, to the gradual extinction of slavery, than ours, which
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 317
has been drawn from the Eoman law, and is of sure and un-
avoidable effect.
Still less has the Petition of Bight, presented to Charles
I., by the Long Parhament, to do with the subject of civil
slavery. It looked merely, as Magna Charta had not done
before it, to the freedom of England — and sought only to
protect them against royal prerogative and the encroaching
spirit of the Stewarts.
As to the Bill of Bights, enacted by the Convention Par-
liament of 1688, it is almost a duplicate of the Petition of
Eight, and arose out of the recollection of that political ty-
ranny from which the nation had just escaped, and the re-
currence of which it was intended to prevent. It contains
no abstract principles. It deals only with practical checks
upon the power of the monarch, and in safeguards for insti-
tutions essential to the preservation of the public liberty.
That it was not designed to anathematize civil slavery may
be taken for granted, since at that epoch and long afterwards
the English government inundated its foreign plantations
with slaves, and supplied other nations with them as mer-
chandise, under the sanction of solemn treaties negotiated
for that purpose. And here I cannot forbear to remark that
we owe it to that same government, when it stood towards
us in the relation of parent to child, that involuntary servi-
tude exists in our land, and that we are now deliberating
whether the prerogative of correcting its evils belongs to the
national or the State governments. In the early periods of
our colonial history every thing was done by the mother
country to encourage the importation of slaves into North
America, and the measures which were adopted by the Colo-
nial Assemblies to prohibit it, were uniformly negatived by
the crown. It is not therefore our fault, nor the fault of our
ancestors, that this calamity has been entailed U23on us ; and
notwithstanding the ostentation with wliich the loitering ab-
olition of the slave trade by the British Parliament has been
318 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
vaunted, the principal consideration which at last reconciled
it to that measure was, that hy suitable care, the slave pop-
ulation in their West India islands (already fully stocked)
might be kept up and even increased without the aid of im-
portation. In a word, it was cold calculations of interest,
and not the suggestions of humanity, or a respect for the
philanthropic principles of Mr. Wilberforce, which produced
their tardy abandonment of that abominable traffic.
Of the Declaration of our Independence, which has also
been quoted in support of the perilous doctrines now urged
upon us, I need not now speak at large. I have shown on' a
former occasion how idle it is to rely upon that instrument
for such a purpose, and will not fatigue you by mere repe-
tition. The self-evident truths announced in the Declaration
of Independence are not truths at all, if taken literally ;
and the practical conclusions contained in the same passage
of that Declaration prove that they were never designed to
be so received.
The Articles of Confederation contain nothing on the
subject ; whilst the actual constitution recognizes the legal
existence of slavery by various provisions. The power of
prohibiting the slave trade is involved in that of regulating
commerce, but this is coupled with an express inhibition to
the exercise of it for twenty years. How then can that con-
stitution which expressly permits the importation of slaves,
authorize the national government to set on foot a crusade
against slavery .?
The clause respecting fugitive slaves is affirmative and
active in its effects. It is a direct sanction and positive pro-
tection of the right of the master to the services of his slave
as derived under the local laws of the State. The phrase-
ology in which it is wrapped up still leaves the intention clear,
and the words " persons held to service or labor in one State
under the laws thereof," have always been interpreted to ex-
tend to the case of slaves, in the various acts of Congress
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 319
which have been passed to give efficacy to the provision, and
in the judicial appHcation of those laws. So also in the clause
prescribing the ratio of representation — the phrase, " three-
fifths of all other persons/' is equivalent to slaves, or it
means nothing. And yet we are told that those who are act-
ing under a constitution which sanctions the existence of
slavery in those States which choose to tolerate it, are at lib-
erty to hold that no law can sanction its existence !
It is idle to make the rightfulness of an act the measure
of sovereign power. The distinction between sovereign pow-
er and the moral right to exercise it, has always been recog-
nized. All poHtical power may be abused, but is it to stop
where abuse maj* begin ? The power of declaring war is a
power of vast capacity for mischief, and capable of inflicting
the most wide-spread desolation. But it is given to Con-
gress without stint and without measure. Is a citizen, or
are the courts of justice to inquire whether that, or any other
law, is just, before they obey or execute it ? And are there
any degrees of injustice which will withdraw from sovereign
power the capacity of making a given law ?
But sovereignty is said to be deputed power. Deputed
— ^by whom ? By the people, because the power is theirs.
And if it be theirs, does not the restriction take it away ?
Examine the constitution of the Union, and it will be seen
that the people of the States are regarded as well as the
States themselves. The constitution was made by the peo-
ple, and ratified by the people.
Is it fit, then, to hold that all the sovereignty of a State
is in the government of the State ? So much is there as
the people grant : and the people can take it away, or give
more, or new model what they have already granted. It is
this right which the proposed restriction takes from Missouri.
You give them an immortal constitution, depending on your
will, not on theirs. The people and their j)osterity are to be
bound for ever by this restriction ; and upon the same prin-
320 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
ciple any other restriction may be imposed. Where then is
their power to change the constitution, and to devolve new
sovereignty upon the State government ? You limit their
sovereign capacity to do it ; and when you talk of a State,
you mean the peoj)le, as well as the government. The people
are the source of all power — you dry up that source. They
are the reservoir — you take out of it what suits you.
It is said that tliis government is a government of depu-
ted powers. So is every government — and what power is
not deputed remains. But the people of the United States
can give it more if they please, as the people of each State
can do in respect to its own government. And here it is
weU to remember, that this is a governmei^ of enumerated,
as well as deputed powers ; and to examine the clause as to
the admission of new States, with that principle in view.
Now assume that it is a part of the sovereign power of the
people of Missouri to continue slavery, and to devolve that
power upon its government — and then to take it away — and
then to give it again. The government is their creature —
the means of exercising their sovereignty, and they can vary
those means at their pleasure. Independently of the Union,
their power would be unlimited. By coming into the
Union, they part with some of it, and are thus less sov-
ereign.
Let us then see whether they part with this power.
If they have parted with this portion of sovereign power,
it must be under that clause of the national constitution
which gives to Congress " power to admit new States into
this Union." And it is said, that this necessarily implies
the authority of j)rescribing the conditions, upon which such
new States shall be admitted. This has been put into the
form- of a syllogism which is thus stated :
Major. Every universal proposition includes all the
means, manner, and terms of the act to which it relates.
Minor. But this is a universal proposition.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 321
Conclusion. Therefore, the means, manner, and terms,
are involved in it.
But this syllogism is fallacious, and any thing else may
be proved by it, by assuming one of its members which
involves the conclusion. The minor is a mere postulate.
Take it in this way :
Major. None but a universal proposition includes in
itself the terms and conditions of the act to be done.
Minor. But this is not such a universal proposition.
Conclusion. Therefore, it does not contain in itself the
terms and conditions of the act.
In both cases the minor is a gratuitous postulate.
But I deny that a universal proposition as to a speci^c
act, involves the tern^s and conditions of that act, so as to
vary it and substitute another and a different act in its
place. The proposition contained in the clause is universal
in one sense only. It is particular in another. It is uni-
versal as to the power to admit or refuse. It is particular
as to the being or thing to be admitted, and the compact by
which it is to be admitted. The sophistry consists in
extending the universal part of the proposition in such a
manner as to make out of it another universal proposition.
It consists in confounding the right to produce or to refuse
to produce a ceHain defined effect, with a right to produce a
different efect by refusing otherwise to produce any effect at
all. It makes the actucd right the instrument of obtaining
another right with which the actual right is incompatible.
It makes, in a word, lawful power the instrument of unlaw-
ful usurpation. The residt is kept out of sight by this
mode of reasoning. The discretion to decline that result,
which is called a universal proposition, is singly obtruded
upon us. But in order to reason correctly, you must keep
in view the defined result, as well as the discretion to pro-
duce or to decline to produce it. The result is the particu-
lar part of the proposition ; therefore, the discretion to
21
322 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
produce or decline it, is the universal part of it. But
because the last is found to be universal, it is taken for
granted that the first is also universal. Tliis is a sophism
too manifest to impose.
But discarding the machinery of syllogisms as unfit for
such a discussion as this, let us look at the clause with a
view of interpreting it by the rules of sound logic and com-
mon sense.
The power is " to admit new States into this Union ;"
and it may be safely conceded that here is discretion to
admit or refuse. The question is, What must we do if we
do any thing ? What must we admit, and into what ?
The answer is a State — and into this Union,
The distinction between federal rights and local rights,
is an idle distinction. Because the new State acquires
federal rights, it is not, therefore, in tliis Union. The Union
is a compact ; and is it an equal party to that compact, be-
cause it has equal federal rights ?
How is the Union formed ? By equal contributions of
power. Make one member sacrifice more than other, and it
becomes unequal. The compact is of two parts.
1. The thing obtained — federal rights.
2. The price paid — local sovereignty.
You may disturb the balance of the Union, either by di-
minishing the thing acquired, or increasing the sacrifice
paid.
What were the purposes of coming into the Union
among the original States ? The States were originally
sovereign without limit, as to foreign and domestic concerns.
But being incaj)able of protecting themselves singly, they
entered into the Union to defend themselves against foreign
violence. The domestic concerns of the people were not, in
general, to be acted on by it. The security of the power of
managing them by domestic legislation, is one of the great
objects of the Union. The Union is a nieans, not an end.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 323
By requiring greater sacrifices of domestic power, the end is
sacrificed to the means. Suppose the surrender of all, or
nearly all, the domestic powers of legislation were required ;
the means would there have swallowed up the end.
The argument that the compact may be enforced, shows
that the federal predicament is changed. The power of the
Union not only acts on persons or citizens, but on the
faculty of the government, and restrains it in a way which
the constitution nowhere authorizes. This new obhgation
takes away a right which is expressly " reserved to the peo-
ple or the States," since it is nowhere granted to the govern-
ment of the Union. You cannot do indirectly what you
cannot do directly. It is said that this Union is competent
to make compacts. Who doubts it ? But can you make
tliis compact ; I insist that you cannot make it, because it
is repugnant to the thing to be done.
The effect of such a compact would be to produce that
inequality in the Union, to which the constitution, in all its
provisions, is adverse. Every thing in it looks to equality
among the members of the Union. Under it, you cannot
produce inequality. Nor can you get beforehand of the con-
stitution, and do it by anticipation. Wait until a State is
in the Union, and you cannot do it : yet it is only upon the
State in the Union that what you do begins to act.
But it seems, that although the proposed restriction may
not be justified by the clause of the constitution which gives
power to admit new States into the Union, separately con-
sidered, there are other parts of the constitution which com-
bined with that clause will warrant it. And first we are
informed that there is a clause in this instrument which de-
clares that Congress shall guarantee to every State a repub-
lican form of government ; that slavery and such a form of
government are incompatible ; and finally, as a conclusion
from these premises, that Congress not only have a right,
324 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
but are hound to exclude slavery from a new State. Here
again, Sir, there is an edifying inconsistency between the ar-
gument and the measure which it professes to vindicate.
By the argument it is maintained that Missouri cannot have
a republican form of government, and at the same time toler-
ate negro slavery. By the measure it is admitted that Mis-
souri may tolerate slavery, as to persons already in bondage
there, and be nevertheless fit to be received into the Union.
What sort of constitutional mandate is this which can thus
be made to bend, and truckle, and compromise as if it were
a simple rule of expediency that might admit of exceptions
upon motives of countervailing expediency ? There can be
no such pliancy in the peremptory provisions of the consti-
tution. They cannot be obeyed by moieties and violated in
the same ratio. They must be followed out to their full
extent, or treated with that decent neglect which has at
least the merit of forbearing to render contumacy obtrusive
by an ostentatious display of the very duty which we in part
abandon. If the decalogue could be observed in this casu-
istical manner, we might be grievous sinners, and yet be
Kable to no reproach. We might persist in all our habitual
irregularities, and still be spotless. We might, for example,
continue to covet our neighbors' goods, provided they were
the same neighbors whose goods we had before coveted — and
so of all the other commandments.
Will the gentlemen tell us that it is the quantity of
slaves, not the qiiality of slavery, which takes from a govern-
ment the republican form ? Will they tell us (for they
have not yet told us) that there are constitutional grounds
(to say nothing of common sense) upon which the slavery
which now exists in Missouri may be reconciled with a re-
laiblican form of government, while any addition to the
number of its slaves (the quality of slavery remaining the
same) from the other States, will be repugnant to that form,
and metamorphose it into some non-descript government
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 325
disowned by the constitution ? They cannot have recourse
to the treaty of 1803 for such a distinction, since indepen-
dently of what I have before observed on that head, the
gentlemen have contended that the treaty has nothing to do
with the matter. They have cut themselves off from all
chance of a convenient distinction in or out of that treaty,
by insisting that slavery beyond the old United States is re-
jected by the constitution, and by the law of God as discov-
erable by the aid of either reason or revelation ; and more-
over that the treaty does not include the case, and if it did
could not make it better. They have therefore completely
discredited their own theory by their own practice, and left
us no theory worthy of being seriously controverted. This
peculiarity in reasoning, of giving out a universal principle
and coupling with it a practical concession that it is wholly
fallacious, has indeed run through the greater part of the
arguments on the other side ; but it is not, as I think, the
more imposing on that account, or the less liable to the cri-
ticism which I have here bestowed upon it.
There is a remarkable inaccuracy on this branch of the
subject into which the gentlemen have fallen, and to which
I will give a moment's attention without laying unnecessary
stress upon it. The government of a new State, as well as
of an old State, must, I agree, be republican in its form.
But it has not been very clearly explained what the laws
which such a government may enact can have to do with its
form. The form of the government is material only as it
furnishes a security that those laws will protect and promote
the public happiness, and be made in a republican spirit.
The peojjle being, in such a government, the fountain of
all power, and their servants being periodically responsible
to them for its exercise, the constitution of the Union takes
for granted, (except so far as it imposes limitations,) that
every such exercise will be just and salutary. The intro-
duction or continuance of civil slavery is manifestl}' the mere
326 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
result of the power of makmg laws. It does not in any
degree enter into the form of the government. It pre-sup-
poses that form already settled, and takes its rise not from
the particular frame of the government, but from the gene-
ral power which every government involves. Make the gov-
ernment what you will in its organization and in the distri-
bution of its authorities, the introduction or continuance of
involuntary serWtude by the legislative power which it has
created can have no influence on its pre-established form,
whether monarchical, aristocratical, or rcpubUcan. The
form of government is still one thing, and the law, being a
simple exertion of the ordinaiy faculty of legislation by those
to whom that form of government has intrusted it, another.
The gentlemen, however, identify an act of legislation sanc-
tioning involuntary servitude with the form of government
itself, and then assure us that the last is changed retroac-
tively by the first, and is no longer republican I
But let us proceed to take a rapid glance at the reasons
which have been assigned for this notion that involuntary
servitude and a republican furm of government are perfect
antipathies. The gentleman from New-Hampshire'' has de-
fined a republican government to be that in which all the
men participate in its power and privileges : from whence it
foUows that where there are slaves, it can have no existence.
A definition is no proof, however; and even if it be dignified
(as I think it was) with the name of a maxim, the matter
is not much mended. It is Lord Bacon who says " that
notliing is so easily made as a maxim ;" and certainly a
definition is manufactured with equal facility. A polit-
ical maxim is the work of induction, and cannot stand
against experience, or stand on any thing but experience.
But this maxim, or definition, or whatever else it may be,
sets fact at defiance. If you go back to antiquity, you
*Mr. Morril.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 327
will obtain no countenance for this hypothesis ; and if you
look at home you will gain still less. I have read that
Sparta, and Rome, and Athens, and many others of the
ancient family were repubhcs. They were so in form un-
doubtedly— the last approaching nearer to a perfect demo-
cracy than any other government which has yet been known
in the world. Judging of them also by their fruits, they
were of the highest order of republics. Sparta could
scarcely be any other than a republic, • when a Spartan
matron could say to her son just marching to battle. Re-
turn VICTORIOUS, OR RETURN NO MORE. It WaS the UUCOU-
querable spuit of liberty, nurtured by republican habits
and institutions, that illustrated the pass of Thermopylee.
Yet slavery was not only tolerated in Sparta, but was estab-
lished by one of the fundamental laws of Lycurgus, having
for its object the encouragement of that very spirit. Attica
was full of slaves — yet the love of liberty was its charac-
teristic. What else was it that foiled the whole power of
Persia at Marathon and Salamis ? What other soil than
that which the genial Sun of Republican Freedom Ulumin-
ated and warmed, could have produced such men as Leo-
nidas and Miltiades, Themistocles and Epaminondas ?
Of Rome it would be superfluous to speak at large. It is
sufficient to name the mighty mistress of the world, before
SyUa gave the first stab to her hberties and the great dic-
tator accomplished their final ruin, to be reminded of the
practicability of union between civU slavery and an ardent
love of liberty cherished by republican establishments.
If we return home for instruction upon this point, we
perceive that same union exempHfied in many a State, in
which " Liberty has a temple in every house, an altar in
every heart," while involuntary semtude is seen in every
direction. Is it denied that those States possess a reiDubh-
can form of government ? If it is, why does our power
of correction sleep ? Why is the constitutional guaranty
328 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
suffered to be inactive ? Why am I permitted to fatigue
you, as the representative of a slaveholding State, with the
discussion of the nugce cano7'ce (for so I think them)
that have been forced into this debate contrary to all the
remonstrances of taste and prudence ? Do gentlemen per-
ceive the consequences to which their arguments must lead
if they are of any value ? Do they reflect that they lead
to emancipation in the old United States — or to an exclu-
sion of Delaware, Maryland, and all the South, and a great
portion of the West, from the Union ? My honorable
friend from Virginia has no business here, if this disor-
ganizing creed be any thing but the production of a heated
brain. The State to wliich I belong, must " perform a lus-
tration"— must purge and purify herself from the feculence
of civn slavery, and emulate the States of the north in
their zeal for throwing down the gloomy idol which we are
said to worsliip, before her senators can have any title to ap-
pear in this high assembly. It will be in vain to urge that
the old United States are exceptions to the rule — or rather
(as the gentlemen express it), that they have no disposition
to ai)ply the rule to them. There can be no exceptions, by
implication only, to such a rule ; and expressions which jus-
tify the exemption of the old States by inference, will jus-
tify the like exemption of Missouri, unless they })oint ex-
clusively to them, as I have shown they do not. The
guai'ded manner, too, in which some of the gentlemen have
occasionally expressed themselves on this subject, is some-
what alarming. They have no disposition to meddle with
slavery in the old United States. Perhaps not — but who
shall answer for their successors ? Who shall furnish a
pledge that the principle once engrafted into the constitu-
tion, will not grow, and spread, and fructify, and overshadow
the whole laud ? It is the natural office of such a principle
to wrestle with slavery, wheresoever it finds it. New
States, colonized by the apostles of this principle, will
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 329
enable it to set on foot a fanatical crusade against all who
still continue to tolerate it, although no practicable means
are pointed out by which they can get rid of it consistently
with their own safety. At any rate, a present forbearing
disposition, in a few or in many, is not a secuiity upon
which much reliance can be placed upon a subject as to
which so many selfish interests and ardent feelings are con-
nected with the cold calculations of pohcy. Admitting,
however, that the old United States are in no danger from
this principle — why is it so ? There can be no other an-
swer (which these zealous enemies of slavery can use) than
that the constitution recognizes slavery as existing or
capable of existing in those States. The constitution, then,
admits that slavery and a republican form of government
are not incongruous. It associates and binds them uji to-
gether, and repudiates this wild imagination which the gen-
tlemen have pressed upon us with such an air of triumph.
But the constitution does more, as I have heretofore proved.
It concedes that slavery may exist in a new State, as well as
in an old one — since the language in which it recognizes
slavery comprehends new States as well as actual. I trust
then that I shaU be forgiven if I suggest, that no eccentri-
city in argument can be more trying to human patience,
than a formal assertion that a constitution, to which slave-
holding States were the most numerous parties, in which
slaves are treated as property as well as person -. vwd provi-
sion is made for the security of that property, and even for
an augmentation of it, by a temporary importation from
Africa, a clause commanding Congress to guarantee a repub-
lican form of government to those very States, as well as to
others, authorizes you to determine that slavery and a re-
publican form of government cannot coexist.
But if a repubhcan form of government is that in which
all the men have a share in the pubhc power, the slafe-
holding States will not alone retire from the Union. The
330 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
constitutions of some of the other States do not sanction uni-
versal suffrage, or universal eligibiKty. They require citizen-
ship, and age, and a certain amount of property, to give a
title to vote or to be voted for ; and they who have not those
qualifications are just as much disfranchised, with regard to
the government and its power, as if they were slaves. They
have civil rights indeed (and so have slaves in a less degree) ;
but they have no share in the government. Their province
is to obey the laws, not to assist in making them. All such
States must therefore be forisfamiliated with Virginia and
the rest, or change their system : for the constitution being
absolutely silent on those subjects, will afford them no pro-
tection. The Union might thus be reduced from an Union
to an unit. Who does not see that such conclusions flow
from false notions — that the true theory of a republican gov-
ernment is mistaken — and that in such a government, rights
political and civil, may be qualified by the fundamental law,
upon such inducements as the freemen of the country deem
sufficient ? That civil rights may be qualified as well as
political, is proved by a thousand examples. IMinors, resi-
dent aliens, who are in a course of naturalization — the other
sex, whether maids or wives, or widows, furnish sufficient
practical proofs of this.
Again; if we are to entertain these hopeful abstractions,
and to resolve all establishments into their imaginary ele-
ments in order to recast them upon some Utopian plan, and
if it be true that aU the men in a republican government
must help to wield its power, and be equal in rights, I beg
leave to ask the honorable gentleman from New Hampshire —
a-nd why not all the loomen ? They too are God's creatures,
and not only very fair but very rational creatures ; and our
great ancestor, if we are to give credit to Milton, accounted
them the " wisest, virtuouscst, discreetest, best ;" although
to' say the truth he had but one specimen from which to
draw his conclusion, and possibly if he had had more, would
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 331
not have drawn it at all. They have, moreover, acknowledged
civil rights in abundance, and upon abstract principles more
than their mascuHne rulers allow them in fact. Some
monarchies, too, do not exclude them from the throne. We
have all read of Ehzabeth of England, of Catharine of Rus-
sia, of Semnamis, and Zenobia, and a long list of royal and
imperial dames, about as good as an equal list of royal and
imperial lords. Why is it that their exclusion from the
power of a popular government is not destructive of its re-
publican character ? I do not address this question to the
honorable gentleman's gallantry, but to his abstraction, and
his theories, and his notions of the infinite perfectibility of
human institutions, boiTowed from Godwin and the turbulent
philosophers of France. For my own part. Sir, if I may
have leave to say so much in the presence of this mixed un-
common audience, I confess I am no friend to female govern-
ment, unless indeed it be that which reposes on gentleness,
and modesty, and virtue, and feminine grace and delicacy ;
and how powerful a government that is, we have all of us, as
I suspect, at some time or other experienced ! But if the
ultra republican doctrines which have now been broached
should ever gain ground among us, I should not be surprised
if some romantic reformer, treading in the footsteps of Mrs.
Wolstoncraft, should propose to rejieal our republican law
salique, and claim for our wives and daughters a full j)ar-
ticipation in political power, and to add to it that domestic
power, which in some families, as I have heard, is as absolute
and unrepublican as any power can be.
I have thus far allowed the honorable gentlemen to avail
themselves of their assumption that the constitutional com-
mand to guarantee to the States a repubhcan form of
government, gives power to coerce those states in the ad-
justment of the details of their constitutions upon theo-
retical speculations. But surely it is passing strange that
any man, who thinks at aU, can view this salutary command
332 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
as the grant of a power so monstrous ; or look at it in any
other light than as a protecting mandate to Congress to in-
terpose with the force and authority of the Union against
that violence and usurpation, by which a member of it might
otherwise be oppressed by profligate and powerful individuals,
or ambitious and unprincipled factions.
In a word, the resort to this portion of the constitution
for an argument in favor of the proposed restriction, is one
of those extravagancies (I hope I shaU not offend by this ex-
pression) which may excite our admiration, but cannot caR
for a very rigorous refutation, I have dealt with it accord-
ingly, and have noAv done with it.
We are next invited to study that clause of the consti-
tution which relates to the migration or importation, before
the year 1808, of such persons as any of the States then ex-
isting should think proper to admit. It runs thus : " The
migration or importation of such persons as any of the States
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be pro-
hibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight
hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed
on such importation not exceeding ten dollars for each
person."
It is said that this clause empowers Congress, after the
year 1808, to prohibit the passage of slaves from State
to State, and the word " migration" is relied upon for that
purpose.
I will not say that the proof of the existence of a j^ower
by a clause which, as far as it goes, denies it, is always inad-
missible ; but I will say that it is always feeble. On this
occasion, it is singularly so. The power, in an affirmative
shape, cannot be found in the constitution; or if it can, it
is equivocal and unsatisfactory. How do the gentlemen
supply this deficiency ? by the aid of a negative provision in
an article of the constitution in which many restrictions are
inserted ex dbundanti cautela, from which it is plainly im-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 333
possible to infer that tiie power to wliicli they apply would
otherwise have existed. Thus : " No bill of attaiiider or ex
post facto law shall be passed." Take away the restriction,
could Congress pass a bill of attainder, the trial by jury in
criminal cases being expressly secured by the constitution ?
The inference, therefore, from the prohibition in question,
whatever may be its meaning, to the power which it is sup-
posed to restrain, but which you cannot lay your finger upon
with any pretensions to certainty, must be a very doubtful
one. But the import of the prohibition is also doubtful, as
the gentlemen themselves admit. So that a doubtful power
is to be made certain by a yet more doubtful negative upon
power — or rather a doubtful negative, where there is no evi-
dence of the corresponding affirmative, is to make out the
affirmative and to justify us in acting upon it, in a matter
of such high moment, that questionable power should not
dare to a23proach it. If the negative were perfectly clear in
its import, the conclusion which has been drawn from it
would be rash, because it might have proceeded, as some of
the negatives in whose company it is found e\ddently did
proceed, from great anxiety to j)revent such assumptions of
authority as are now attempted. But when it is conceded,
that the supposed import of this negative (as to the term
migration) is ambiguous, and that it may have been used in
a very different sense from that which is imputed to it, the
conclusion acquires a character of boldness, which, however
some may admire, the wise and reflecting will not fail to
condemn.
In the construction of this clause, the first remark that
occurs is, that the word migration is associated with the
word IMPORTATION. I do not insist that noscitiir a sociis is
as good a rule in matters of interpretation as in common
life ; but it is, nevertheless, of considerable weight when the
associated words are not qualified by any phrases that disturb
the efiect of their fellowship ; and unless it announces (as
334 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
in this case it does not), by specific phrases combined with
the associated term, a different intention. Moreover, the
ordinary unrestricted import of the word migration is what
I have here supposed. A removal from district to district,
within the same jurisdiction, is never denominated a migra-
tion of persons. I ^vill concede to the honorable gentlemen,
if they will accept the concession, that ants may be said to
migrate when they go from one ant-hill to another at no
great distance from it. But even then they could not be
said to migrate, if each ant-hill was their home in vii'tue of
some federal compact with insects like themselves. But,
however this may be, it should seem to be certain that hu-
man beings do not migrate, in the sense of a constitution,
simply because they transplant themselves, from one place,
to which that constitution extends, to another which it
equally covers.
If this word migration applied to freemen, and not to
slaves, it would be clear that removal from State to State
would not be comprehended within it. Why then, if you
choose to apply it to slaves, does it take another meaning as
to the i^lace from whence they are to come ?
Sir, if we once depart from the usual acceptation of this
term, fortified as it is by its union with another in which
there is nothing in this respect equivocal, will gentlemen
please to intimate the point at which we are to stop ? 3Iigra-
tion means, as they contend, a removal from State to State,
within the pale of the common government. Why not a re-
moval also from county to county %vithin a particular
State — from plantation to plantation — from farm to farm —
from hovel to hovel ? Why not any exertion of the power
of locomotion ? I protest I do not see, if this arbitrary
limitation of the natural sense of the term migration be war-
rantable, that a person to whom it apjDlies may not be com-
pelled to remain immovable all the days of his Kfe (which
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 335
could not well be many) in the very spot, literally speaking,
in which it was his good or his bad fortune to be born.
Whatever may be the latitude in which the word "per-
sons" is capable of being received, it is not denied that the
word " importation" indicates a bringiag in from a jurisdic-
tion foreign to the United States. The two termini of the
impoi'tation, here spoken of, are a foreign country and the
American Union — the fii'st the terminus a quo, the second
the terminus ad quern. The word migration stands in sim-
ple connection with it, and of course is left to the full in-
fluence of that connection. The natural conclusion is, that
the same termini belong to each, or in other words, that if
the impoi'tation must be abroad, so also must be the migra-
tion— no other termini being assigned to the one which are
not manifestly characteristic of the other. This conclusion
is so obvious, that to repel it, the word migration requires,
as an appendage, explanatory phraseology, giving to it a dif-
ferent beginning from that of importation. To justify the
conclusion that it was intended to mean a removal from
State to State, each within the sphere of the constitution in
which it is used, the addition of the words from one to
another State in this Union, were indispensable. By the
omission of these words, the word " migration" is compelled
to take every sense of which it is fairly susceptible from its
immediate neighbor " importation." In this view it means
a coming, as " importation" means a bringing, from a foreign
jurisdiction into the United States. That it is susceptible
of this meaning, nobody doubts. I go further. It can have
no other meaning in the place in which it is found. It is
found in the constitution of this Union — which, when it
speaks of migration as of a general concern, must be sup-
posed to have in view a migration into the domain which
itself embraces as a general government.
Migration, then, even if it comprehends slaves, does not
mean the removal of them from State to State, but means
336 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
the coming of slaves from places beyond their limits and
their power. And if this be so, the gentlemen gain nothing
for their argument by showing that slaves were the objects
of this term.
An honorable gentleman from Rhode Island,"''" whose
speech was distinguished for its ability, and for an admirable
force of reasoning, as well as by the moderation and mildness
of its spirit, informed us, with less discretion than in general
he exhibited, that the word " migration" was introduced into
this clause at the instance of some of the Southern States,
who wished by its instrumentality to guard against a pro-
hibition by Congress of the passage into those States of
slaves from other States. He has given us no authority for
this supposition, and it is, therefore, a gratuitous one. How
improbable it is, a moment's reflection will convince him.
The African slave-trade being open during the whole of the
time to which the entire clause in question referred, such a
purpose could scarely be entertained ; but if it had been en-
tertained, and there was believed to be a necessity for secur-
ing it, by a restriction upon the power of Congress to interfere
with it, is it possible that they who deemed it imi)ortant
would have contented themselves with a vague restraint,
which was calculated to operate in almost any other manner
than that which they desired ? If fear and jealousy, "such
as the honorable gentleman has described, had dictated this
provision, a better term than that of " migration," simple
and unqualified, and joined too with the word " importa-
tion," would have been found to tranquillize those fears and
satisfy that jealousy. Fear and jealousy are watchful, and
are rarely seen to accept a security short of their object, and
less rarely to shape that security, of their own accord, in
such a way as to make it no security at aU. They always
seek an explicit guaranty ; and that this is not such a gua-
* Mr. Burrill.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 337
ranty this debate lias proved, if it has proved nothing
else.
Sir, I shall not be understood by what I have said to ad-
mit that the word migration refers to slaves. I have contended
only that if it does refer to slaves, it is in this clause syno-
nymous with importation; and that it cannot mean the
mere passage of slaves, with or without their masters, from
one State in the Union to another.
But I now deny that it refers to slaves at all. I am not
for any man's opinions or his histories upon this subject. I
am not accustomed jurare in verba magistri. I shall take
the clause as I find it, and do my best to interpret it.
[After going through with that part of his argument re-
lating to this clause of the constitution, which I have not
been able to restore from the imperfect notes in my posses-
sion, Mr. Pinkney concluded his speech by expressing a hope
that (what he deemed) the perilous principles urged by
those in favor of the restriction upon the new State would
be disavowed or explained, or that at all events the applica-
tion of them to the subject under discussion would Dot be
pressed, but that it might be disposed of in a manner satis-
factory to all by a prospective prohibition of slavery in the
territory to the north and west of Missouri.]
SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPEESENTATIVES ON THE TKEATY-
MAKING POWEK.
In the debate upon the bill to carry into effect the
British convention of 1815, Mr. Pinkney said : He intended
yesterday, if the state of his health had permitted, to have
trespassed on the House with a short sketch of the grounds
upon which he disapproved of the bill. What I could not
do then, (said he,) I am about to endeavor now, under the
22
338 LIFE or WILLIAM PINKNEY.
pressure, nevertheless, of continuing indisposition, as well as
under the influence of a natural reluctance thus to manifest
an apparently ambitious and improvident hurry to lay aside
the character of a listener to the wisdom of others, by which
I C(jul(l not fail to profit, for that of an expounder of my own
humble notions, which are not likely to be profitable to any
body. It is, indeed, but too probable that I should best
have consulted both delicacy and discretion, if I had forborne
this precipitate attempt to launch my little bark upon what
an honorable member has aptly termed "tlie torrent of de-
bate " which this bill has jModuced. I am conscious that it
may with singular propriety be said of me, that I am noves
hospes here ; that I have scarcely begun to acquire a domicil
among those whom I am undertaking to address ; and that re-
cently transjjlanted hitlier from courts of judicature, I ought
for a season to look upon myself as a sort of exotic, which
time has not sufliciently familianzed witli the soil to which it
has been removed, to enable it to put forth either fruit or
flower. However all this may be, it is now too late to be
silent. I proceed, therefore, to entreat your indulgent atten-
tion to the few words with which I have to trouble you upon
the subject under deliberation.
That subject has already been treated with an admirable
force and perspicuity on all sides of the House. The strong
power of argument has drawn aside, as it ought to do, the
veil which is supposed to belong to it, and which some of us
seem unwilling to disturb ; and the stronger power of genius,
from a liigher region than that of argument, has thrown
upon it all the light with which it is the prerogative of genius
to invest and illustrate every thing. It is fit that it should
be so ; for the suliject is worthy by its dignity and impor-
tance to employ in the discussion of it all the powers of the
mind, and all the eloquence by which I have already felt
that this assembly is distinguished. The subject is the fun-
damental law. We owe it to the j^eople to labor with sin-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 339
cerity and diligence, to ascertain the true construction of
that law, which is but a record of their will. We owe it to
the obligations of the oath which has recently been imprinted
upon our consciences, as well as to the people, to be obedient
to that will when we have succeeded in ascertaining it . I
shall give you my opinion upon this matter, with the utmost
deference for the judgment of others ; but at the same time
with that honest and unreserved freedom which becomes this
place, and is suited to my habits.
Before we can be in a situation to decide whether this
bill ought to pass, we must know precisely what it is ; what it
is not is obvious. It is not a bill which is auxiliary to the
treaty. It does not deal with details which the treaty does
not bear in its own bosom. It contains no subsidiary enact-
ments, no dependent provisions, flowing as corollaries from
the treaty. It is not to raise money, or to make appropria-
tions, or to do any thing else beyond or out of the treaty. It
acts simply as the echo of the treaty.
Ingeminat voces, auditaque verba reportat. It may
properly be called the twin brother of the treaty; its dupli-
cate, its reflected image, for it re-enacts with a timid fidelity,
somewhat inconsistent with the boldness of its pretensions,
all that the treaty stipulates, and having performed that
work of supererogation, stops. It once attempted something
more, indeed ; but that surplus has been expunged from it
as a desperate intruder, as something which might violate,
by a misinterpretation of the treaty, that very public faith
which we are now prepared to say the treaty has never
plighted in any the smallest degree. In a word, the bill is
Si facsimile of the treaty in all its clauses.
I am warranted in concluding, then, that if it be any
thing but an empty form of words, it is a confirmation or
ratification of the treaty; or, to speak with a more guarded
accuracy, is an act to which only (if passed into law) the
treaty can owe its being. If it does not spring from the
340 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
pruritas leges ferendi, by which this body can never be
afflicted, I am warranted in saying, that it springs from an
hyjjothesis (which may afflict us with a worse disease) that
no treaty of commerce can be made by any power in the
state but Congress. It stands upon that postulate, or it is
a mere bubble, wliich might be suffered to float through the
forms of legislation, and then to burst without consequence
or notice.
That this postulate is utterly kreconcilable with the
claims and port with which this convention comes before you,
it is impossible to deny. Look at it ! Has it the air or
shaj^e of a mere pledge that the President will recommend
to Congress the passage of such laws as will produce the
effect at which it aims ? Does it profess to be preliminary,
or provisional, or inchoate, or to rely upon your instrumen-
tality in the consummation of it, or to take any notice of
you, however distant, as actual or eventual parties to it ?
No, it pretends upon the face of it, and in the solemnities
with which it has been accompanied and followed, to be a
pact Avith a foreign state, complete and self-efficient, from
the obligation of which this government cannot now escape,
and to the perfection of which no more is necessary than has
already been done. It contains the clause which is found in
the treaty of 1794, and substantially in every other treaty
made by the United States under the present constitution,
so as to become a formula, that, when ratified by the Presi-
dent of the United States, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Senate, and by his Britannic majesty, and the
respective ratifications mutually exchanged, it shall be bind-
ing and obligatory on the said states and his majesty.
It has been ratified in conformity with that clause. Its
ratifications have been exchanged in the established and
stipulated mode. It has been proclaimed, as other treaties
have been proclaimed, by the executive government, as an
integral portion of the law of the land, and our citizens at
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 341
home and abroad, have been admonished to keep and observe
it accordingly. It has been sent to the other contracting
party with the last stamp of the national faith upon it, after
the manner of former treaties with the same power, and
will have been received and acted upon by that party as a
concluded contract, long before your loitering legislation can
overtake it. I protest. Sir, I am somewhat at a loss to un-
derstand what this convention has been since its ratifications
were exchanged, and what it is now, if our bill be sound in
its principle. Has it not been, and is it not an unintelligible,
unbaptized and unbaj^tizable thing, without attributes of any
kind, bearing the semblance of an executed compact, but in
reality a hollow fiction ; a thing which no man is led to con-
sider even as the germ of a treaty, entitled to be cherished
in the vineyard of the constitution ; a thing which, profess-
ing to have done every thing that public honor demands, has
done nothing but practise delusion ? You may ransack
every diplomatic nomenclature and run through every voca-
bulary^, whether of diplomacy or law, and you shall not find a
word by which you may distinguish, if our bill be correct in
its hypothesis, this " deed without a name." A plain man
who is not used to manage his phrases, may, therefore, pre-
sume to say that if this convention -with England be not a
valid treaty, which does not stand in need of your assistance,
it is an usurpation on the part of those who have undertaken
to make it ; that if it be not an act within the treaty-making
capacity, confided to the President and Senate, it is an en-
croachment on the legislative rights of Congress.
I am one of those who view the bill upon the table, as
declaring that it is not within that capacity, as looking down
upon the convention as the still-born progeny of arrogated
power, as offering to it the paternity of Congress, and affect-
ing by that jiaternity to give to it life and strength ; and as I
think that the convention does not stand in need of any such
filiation, to make it either strong or legitimate, that it is
342 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET,
already all that it can become, and that useless legislation
ujDon such a subject is vicious legislation, I shall vote against
the bill. The correctness of these opinions is what I propose
to establish.
I lay it down as an incontrovertible truth, that the con-
stitution has assumed (and, indeed, how could it do other-
wise ?) that the government of the United States might and
would have occasion, like the other governments of the
civilized world, to enter into treaties with foreign powers,
upon the various subjects involved in their mutual relations ;
and further, that it might be, and was proper to designate
the department of the government in which the ca2)acity to
make such treaties should be lodged. It has said, accord-
ingly, that the President, with the concurrence of the Sen-
ate, shall possess this portion of the national sovereignty.
It has, furthermore, given to the same magistrate, with the
same concurrence, the exclusive creation and control of the
whole machinery of dii)lomacy. He only, with the appro-
bation of the Senate, can apjjoint a negotiator, or take any
step towards negotiation. The constitution does not, in any
part of it, even intimate that any other department shall
possess either a constant or an occasional right to interpose
in the preparation of any treaty, or in the final perfection
of it. The President and Senate are explicitly pointed out
as the sole actors in that sort of transaction. The pre-
scribed concurrence of the Senate, and that too by a major-
ity greater than the ordinary legislative majority, plainly
excludes the necessity of congressional concurrence. If the
consent of Congress to any treaty had been intended, the
constitution would not have been guilty of the absurdity of
first putting a treaty for ratification to the President and
Senate exclusively, and again to the same President and
Senate as portions of the legislature. It would have sub-
mitted the whole matter at once to Congress, and the
more especially, as the ratification of a treaty by the Senate,
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 343
as a branch of the legislature, may be by a smaller number
than a ratification of it by the same body, as a branch of
the executive government. If the ratification of any treaty
by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate,
must be followed by a legislative ratification, it is a mere
nonentity. It is good for all purposes, or for none. And if
it be nothing in effect, it is a mockery by which nobody would
be bound. The President and Senate would not themselves
be bound by it — and the ratification would at last depend,
not upon the will of the President and two-thirds of the
Senate, but upon the will of a bare majority of the two
branches of the legislature, subject to the qualified legisla-
tive control of the President.
Upon the power of the President and Senate, therefore,
there can be no doubt. The only question is as to the ex-
tent of it, or in other words, as to the subject upon which
it may be exerted. The effect of the power, when exerted
within its lawful sphere, is beyond the reach of controversy.
The constitution has declared, that whatsoever amounts to
a treaty, made under the authority of the United States,
shall immediately be supreme law. It has contradistin-
guished a treaty as law from an act of Congress as law. It
has erected treaties, so conti-adistinguished, into a binding
judicial rule. It has given them to our courts of justice, in
defining their jurisdiction, as a portion of the lex terrce,
which they are to interpret and enforce. In a word, it has
communicated to them, if ratified by the department which
it has specially provided for the making of them, the rank
of law, or it has spoken without meaning. And if it has
not elevated them to that rank, it is idle to attempt to
raise them to it by ordinary legislation.
Upon the extent of the power, or the subjects upon
which it may act, there is as little room for controversy.
The power is to make treaties. The word treaties is nomen
gemralissimwn, and will comprehend commercial treaties,
344 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
unless there be a limit upon it by wliich they are excluded.
It is the appellative, which will take in the whole species, if
there be nothing to narrow its scope. There is no such
limit. There is not a syllable in the context of the clause
to restrict the natural import of its phraseology. The
power is left to the force of the generic term, and is, there-
fore, as wide as a treaty-making power can be. It em-
braces all the varieties of treaties which it could be sup-
posed this government could find it necessary or proper to
make, or it embraces none. It covers the whole treaty-
making ground which this government could be expected to
occupy, or not an inch of it.
It is a just presumption, that it was designed to be co-
extensive with all the exigencies of our affairs. Usage
sanctions that presumption — expediency does the same.
The omission of any exception to the power, the omission of
the designation of a mode by which a treaty, not intended
to be included within it, might otherwise be made, confirms
it. That a commercial treaty was, above aU others, in the
contemplation of the constitution, is manifest. The imme-
morial practice of Euroi)e, and particularly of the nation
from which we emigrated, the consonance of enlightened
theory to that practice, prove it. It may be said, indeed,
that at the epoch of the birth of our constitution, the neces-
sity for a power to make commercial treaties was scarcely
visible, for that our trade was then in its infancy. It was
so ; but it was the infancy of another Hercules, promising,
not indeed a victory over the lion of Nemaea, or the boar of
Erymanthus, but the peaceful conquest of every sea wliich
could be subjected to the dominion of commercial enterprise.
It Avas then as apparent as it is now, that the destinies of
this great nation were irrevocably commercial ; that the
ocean would be whitened by our sails, and the ultima Thule
of the world compelled to witness the more than Phcenician
spirit and intelligence of our merchants. With this glo-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 34d
rious anticipation dawning upon them — with this resplen-
dent Aurora gilding the prospect of the future ; nay, with
the risen orb of trade illuminating the vast horizon of Ame-
rican greatness, it cannot he supposed that the framers of
the constitution did not look to the time when we should be
called upon to make commercial conventions. It needs
not the aid of the imagination to reject this disparaging and
monstrous supposition. Dulness itself, throwing aside the
lethargy of its character, and rising for a passing moment
to the rapture of enthusiasm, will disclaim it with indig-
nation.
It is said, however, that the constitution has given to
Congress the power to regulate commerce vnih foreign na-
tions ; and that, since it would be inconsistent with that power,
that the President, with the consent of the Senate, should
do the same thing, it follows, that this power of Congress is
an exception out of the treaty-making power. Never were
premises, as it appears to my understanding, less suited to
the conclusion. The power of Congress to regulate our fo-
reign trade, is a power of municipal legislation, and was
designed to operate as far, as, upon such a subject, munici-
pal legislation can reach. Without such a power, the gov-
ernment Avould be wholly inadequate to the ends for which it
was instituted. A power to regulate commerce by treaty
alone, would touch only a portion of the subject. A -wider
and more general power was therefore indispensable, and it
was properly devolved on Congress, as the legislature of
the Union.
On the other hand, a power of mere municipal legisla-
tion, acting upon views exclusively our own, having no re-
ference to a reciprocation of advantages by arrangements with
a foreign state, would also fall short of the ends of govern-
ment in a country of which the commercial relations are
complex and extensive, and liable to be embarrassed by
conflicts between its own interests and those of other na-
346 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
tions. That the power of Congress is simply legislative in
the strictest sense, and calculated for ordinary domestic regu-
lation only, is plain from the language in which it is com-
municated. There is nothing in that language which indi-
'cates regulation, by compact or compromise, nothing which
j)oints to the co-operation of a foreign jjower, notliing which
designates a treaty-making faculty. It is not connected
with any of the necessary accompaniments of that faculty ;
it is not furnished with any of those means, without which
it is impossible to make the smallest progress towards a
treaty.
It is self-evident, that a capacity to regulate com-
merce by treaty, was intended by the constitution to
be lodged somewhere. It is just as evident, that the legis-
lative capacity of Congress does not amount to it ; and
cannot be exerted to produce a treaty. It can produce only
a statute, with which a foreign state cannot be made to
concur, and which will not yield to any modifications which
a foreign state may desire to imjircss upon it for suitable
equivalents. There is no way in which Congress, as such,
can mould its laws into treaties, if it respects the constitu-
" tion. It may legislate and counter-legislate ; but it must
for ever be beyond its capacity to combine in a law, emanat-
ing from its separate domestic authority, its own views with
those of other governments, and to produce a harmonious
reconciUation of those jarring purposes and discordant ele-
ments which it is the business of negotiation to adjust.
I reason thus, then, upon this part of the subject. It is
clear that the power of Congress, as to foreign commerce, is
only what it professes to be in the constitution, a legislative
power, to be exerted municipally without consultation or
agreement with those with whom we have an intercourse of
trade ; it is undeniable that the constitution meant to pro-
vide for the exercise of another power relatively to com-
merce, which should exert itself in concert with the analo-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 347
gous power in other countries, and should bring about its
results, not by statute enacted by itself, but by an inter-
national compact called a treaty ; that it is manifest, that
this other power is vested by the constitution in the Presi-
dent and Senate, the only department of the government
which it authorizes to make any treaty, and which it enables
to make all treaties ; that if it be so vested, its regular ex-
ercise must result in that which, as far as it reaches, is law
in itself, and consequently repeals such municipal regula-
tions as stand in its way, since it is expressly declared by
the constitution that treaties regularly made shall have, as
they ought to have, the force of law. In all this, I perceive
nothing to perplex or alarm us. It exhibits a well digested
and uniform plan of government, worthy of the excellent
men by whom it was formed. The ordinary power to regu-
late commerce by statutory enactments, could only be de-
volved upon Congress, possessing all the other legislative
powers of the government. The extraordinary power to re-
gulate it by treaty, could not be devolved upon Congress,
because from its composition, and the absence of all those
authorities and functions which are essential to the activity
and effect of a treaty-making power, it was not calculated
to be the depository of it. It was wise and consistent to
place the extraordinary power to regulate commerce by
treaty, where the residue of the treaty-making power was
placed, where only the means of negotiation could be found,
and the skilful and beneficial use of them could reasonably
be expected.
That Congress legislates upon commerce, subject to the
treaty-making jJOioer, is a position perfectly intelligible ; but
the understanding is in some degree confounded by the other
proposition, that the legislative power of Congress is an ex-
ception out of the treaty-making power. It introduces into
the constitution a strange anomaly — a commercial state, with
a written constitution, and no power in it to regulate its
348 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
trade, in conjunction with other states, in the universal mode
of convention. It will be in vain to urge, that this anomaly
is merely imaginary ; for that the President and Senate may
make a treaty of commerce for the consideration of Con-
gress. The answer is, that the treaties which the President
and Senate are entitled to make, are such, as when made,
become a law ; that it is no part of their functions simply
to initiate treaties, but conclusively to make them ; and
that where they have no power to make them, there is no
provision in the constitution, how or by whom they shall be
made.
That there is nothing new in the idea of a separation of
the legislative and conventional powers upon commercial
subjects, and of the necessary control of the former by the
latter, is known to all who are acquainted with the constitu-
tion of England. The parliament of that country enacts
the statutes by which its trade is regulated municipally.
The crown modifies them by a treaty. It has been ima-
gined, indeed, that parliament is in the practice of confirm-
ing such treaties ; but the fact is undoubtedly otherwise.
Commercial treaties are laid before parliament, because the
king's ministers are responsible for their advice in the mak-
ing of them, and because the vast range and complication of
the English laws of trade and revenue, render legislation
unavoidable, not for the ratification, but the execution of
their commercial treaties.
It is suggested, again, that the treaty-making power
(unless we are tenants in common of it with the President
and Senate, to the extent at least of our legislative rights)
is a pestilent monster, pregnant with all sorts of disasters 1
It teems with " Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire ! "
At any rate, I may take for granted that the case before us
does not justify this array of metaphor and fable ; since we
are all agreed that the convention with England is not only
harmless but salutary. To put this particular case, how-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 349
ever, out of the argument, what have we to do with consi-
derations like these ? are we here to form, or to submit to,
the constitution as it has been given to us for a rule by
those who are our masters ? Can we take upon ourselves
the office of jDohtical casuists, and because we think that a
power ought to be less than it is, compel it to shrink to our
standard ? Are we to bow with reverence before the na-
tional will as the constitution displays it, or to fashion it to
our own, to quarrel with that charter, without wliich we
ourselves are nothing ; or to take it as a guide which we
cannot desert with innocence and safety ? But why is the
treaty-making j^ower, lodged, as I contend it is, in the Pre-
sident and Senate, likely to disaster us, as we are required
to apprehend it will ? Sufficient checks have not, as it
seems, been provided, either by the constitution or the na-
ture of things, to prevent the abuse of it. It is in the
House of Eepresentatives alone, that the amulet, which bids
defiance to the approaches of political disease^ or cures it
when it has commenced, can in all vicissitudes be found. I
hold that the checks are sufficient, without the charm of our
legislative agency, for all those occasions which wisdom is
bound to foresee and to guard against ; and that as to the
rest (the eccentricities and portents which no ordinary
checks can deal with) the occasions must provide for them-
selves.
It is natural, here, to ast of gentlemen, what security
they would have .? They cannot " take a bond of Fate ; "
and they have every pledge which is short of it. Have they
not, as respects the President, all the security upon which
they rely from day to day for the discreet and upright dis-
charge of the whole of his other duties, many and various as
they are ? What security have they that he will not ap-
point to office the refuse of the world ; that he will not pol-
lute the sanctuary of justice by calling vagabonds to its holy
ministry, instead of adorning it with men like those who
350 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
now give to the bench more dignity than they receive from
it : that he will not enter into a treaty of amnesty with
every conspirator against law and order, and pardon culprits
from mere enmity to virtue ? The security for all this, and
infinitely more, is found in the constitution and in the or-
der of nature ; and we are all satisfied with it. One should
think that the same security, which thus far time has not
discredited, might he sufficient to tranquillize us upon the
score of the power which we are now considering.
We talk of ourselves as if we only were the representa-
tives of the people. But the first magistrate of this country
is also the representative of the people, the creature of their
sovereignty, the administrator of their power, their steward
and servant, as you are — he comes from the people, is lifted
by them into place and authority, and after a short season
returns to them for censure or applause. There is no ana-
logy between such a magistrate and the hereditary monarchs
of Europe. He is not born to the inheritance of office ; he
cannot even be elected until he has reached an age at which
he must pass for what he is ; until his habits have been
formed, his integrity tried, his capacity ascertained, his cha-
racter discussed and probed for a series of years, by a press,
which knows none of the restraints of European policy. He
acts, as you do, in the full view of his constituents, and un-
der the consciousness that on account of the singleness of his
station, all eyes are upon him. He knows, too, as well as
you can know, the temper and intelligence of those for
whom he acts, and to whom he is amenable. He cannot
hope that they will be blind to the vices of his administra-
tion on subjects of high concernment and vital interest ; and
in proportion as he acts upon his own responsibility, unre-
lieved and undiluted by the infusion of ours, is the danger
of ill-advised conduct likely to be present to his mind.
Of all the powers which have been intrusted to him,
there is none to which the temptations to abuse belong so
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 351
little as to the treaty-making power in all its branches ;
none which can boast such mighty safeguards in the feel-
ings, and views, and passions which even a misanthrope
could attribute to the foremost citizen of this republic. He
can have no motive to palsy by a commercial or any other
treaty the prosperity of his country. Setting apart the re-
straints of honour and patriotism, which are the character-
istic of public men in a nation habitually free, could he do
so without subjecting himself as a member of the com-
munity (to say nothing of his immediate connections) to the
evils of liis own work ? A commercial treaty, too, is al-
ways a conspicuous measure. It speaks for itself. It can-
not take the garb of hypocrisy, and shelter itself from the
scrutiny of a vigilant and well instructed population. If it
be bad, it will be condemned, and if dishonestly made, be
execrated. The pride of country, moreover, which animates
even the lowest of mankind, is here a peculiar pledge for the
provident and wholesome exercise of power. There is not a
consideration by which a cord in the human breast can be
made to vibrate that is not in this case the ally of duty.
Every hope, either lofty or humble, that springs forward to
the future ; even the vanity which looks not beyond the mo-
ment ; the dread of shame and the love of glory ; the in-
stinct of ambition ; the domestic affections ; the cold pon-
derings of prudence ; and the ardent instigations of senti-
ment and passion, are all on the side of duty. It is in the
exercise of this power that responsibility to public opinion,
which even despotism feels and truckles to, is of gigantic
force. If it were possible, as I am sure it is not, that an
American citizen, raised, upon the credit of a long life of
virtue, to a station so full of honor, could feel a disposition
to mingle the httle interests of a perverted ambition with
the great concerns of his country, as embraced by a com-
mercial treaty, and to sacrifice her happiness and power by
the stipulations of that treaty, to ilatter or aggrandize a fo-
352 LIFE or WILLIAM PINKNEY.
reign state, he would still he saved from the perdition of
such a course, not only by constitutional checks, but by the
irresistible efficacy of responsibility to public opinion, in a
nation whose public opinion wears no mask, and will not be
silenced. He would remember that his jDolitical career is
but the thing of an hour, and that when it has passed he
must descend to the private station from which he rose, the
object either of love and veneration, or of scorn and horror.
If we cast a glance at Eugland, we shall not fail to see the
influence of public opinion upon an hereditary king, an
hereditary nobility, and a House of Commons elected in a
great degree by rotten boroughs, and overflowing with place-
men. And if this influence is potent there against all the
efforts of independent power and wide spread corruption, it
must in this coimtry be omnipotent.
But the treaty-making power of the President is further
checked by the necessity of the concurrence of two-thirds of
the Senate, consisting of men selected by the legislatures of
the States, themselves elected by the people. They too
must have passed through the probation of time before they
can be chosen, and must bring with them eveiy title to con-
fidence. The duration of their office is that of a few years ;
their numbers are considerable ; their constitutional respon-
sibility as great as it can be ; and their moral responsibility
beyond all calculation.
The power of impeachment has been mentioned as a
check upon the President in the exercise of the treaty-mak-
ing capacity. I rely upon it less than upon others, of, as I
think, a better class ; but as the constitution places some re-
liance upon it, so do I. It has been said, that impeachment
has been tried and found wanting. Two impeachments have
foiled, as I have understood, (that of a judge was one) — but
they may have failed for reasons consistent with the general
efficacy of such a proceeding. I know nothing of their merits,
but I am justified in supposing that the evidence was defec-
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 353
tive, or that the parties were innocent as they were pro-
nounced to be : — Of this, however, I feel assured, that if it
should ever happen that the President is found to deserve
the punishment which impeachment seeks to inflict, (even
for making a treaty to which the judges have become parties,)
and this body should accuse him in a constitutional way, he
will not easily escape. But, be that as it may, I ask if it is
nothing that you have power to arraign him as a culprit ?
Is it notliing that you can bring him to the bar, expose his
misconduct to the world, and bring down the indignation of
the public upon him and those who dare to acquit him ?
If there be any power explicitly granted by the constitu-
tion to Congress, it is that of declaring war ; and if there be
any exercise of human legislation more solemn and important
than another, it is a declaration of war. For expansion it is
the largest, for effect the most awful of all the enactments
to which Congress is competent ; and it always is, or ought
to be, preceded by grave and anxious deliberation. This
power, too, is connected with, or virtually involves, others of
high import and efficacy; among which may be ranked the
power of granting letters of marque and reprisal, of regulat-
ing captures, of prohibiting intercourse with, or the accept-
ance of protections or licenses from the enemy. Yet farther;
a power to declare war imjilies, with peculiar emphasis, a
negative upon all power, in any other branch of the govern-
ment, inconsistent with the full and continuing effect of it. A
power to make peace in any other branch of the government,
is utterly inconsistent with that full and continuing effect.
It may even prevent it from having any effect at all ; since
peace may follow almost immediately (although it rarely does
so follow) the commencement of a war. If, therefore, it be
undeniable that the President, with the advice and consent
of the Senate, has power to make a treaty of j^eace, available
ipso jure, it is undeniable that he has power to repeal, by
the mere operation of such a treatv, the highest acts of con-
23
354 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY,
gressional legislation. And it will not be questioned that
this repealing power is, from the eminent nature of the war-
declaring power, less fit to be made out by inference than
the power of modifying by treaty the laws which regulate
our foreign trade. Now the President, with the advice and
consent of the Senatej has an incontestable and uncontested
right to make a treaty of peace, of absolute inherent efficacy,
and that too in virtue of the very same general provision in
the constitution which the refinements of political speculation,
rather than any kaown rules of construction, have led some
of us to suppose excludes a treaty of commerce.
By what process of reasoning will you be able to extract
from the wide field of that general provision the obnoxious
case of a commercial treaty, without forcing along with it
the case of a treaty of peace, and along with that again the
case of every possible treaty ? Will you rest your distinction
upon the favorite idea that a treaty cannot repeal laws com-
petently enacted, or, as it is sometimes expressed, cannot
trench upon the legislative rights of Congress ? Such a dis-
tinction not only seems to be reproached by all the theories,
numerous as they are, to which this bill has given birth, but
is against notorious fact and recent experience. We have
lately witnessed the oioeration in this respect of a treaty of
peace, and could not fail to draw from it this lesson ; that
no sooner does the President exert, with tlie consent of the
Senate, his power to make such a treaty, than your war-de-
nouncing law, your act for letters of marque, your prohibit-
ory statutes as to intercourse and licenses, and all the other
concomitant and dependent statutes, so far as they affect the
national relations with a foreign enemy, jiass away as a dream,
and in a moment are 'with years beyond the flood.' Your
auxiliary agency was not required in the production of this
effect ; and I have not heard that you even tendered it. You
saw your laws departing as it were from the statute books,
expelled from the strong hold of supremacy by the single
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 355
force of a treaty of peace ; and you did not attempt to stay
them ; you did not bid them linger until you should bid them
go ; you neither put your shoulders to the wheel of expulsion
nor made an effort to retard it. In a word, you did nothing.
You suffered them to flee as a shadow, and you know that
they were reduced to shadow, not by the necromancy of
usurpation, but by the emergy of constitutional power. Yet,
you had every reason for interference then which you can
have now. The power to make a treaty of peace stands upon
the same constitutional footing with the power to make a
commercial treaty. It is given by the same words. It is
exerted in the same manner. It produces the same conflict
with municipal legislation. The ingenuity of man cannot
urge a consideration, w^hether upon the letter or the spirit of
the constitution, against the existence of a power in the Pres-
ident and Senate to make a valid commercial treaty, which
will not, if it be correct and sound, drive us to the negation
of the power exercised by the President and Senate, with
universal approbation, to make a valid treaty of peace.
Nay, the whole treaty-making power will be blotted from
the constitution, and a new one, alien to its theory and prac-
tice, be made to supplant it, if sanction and scope be given
to the principles of this bill. This bill may indeed be con-
sidered as the first of many assaults, not now intended per-
haps, but not therefore the less likely to happen, by which
the treaty-making power, as created and lodged by the con-
stitution, will be pushed from its place, and compelled to
abide with the power of ordinary legislation. The example
of this bill is beyond its ostensible limits. The pernicious
principle, of which it is at once the child and the apostle,
must work onward and to the right and the left until it has
exhausted itself ; and it never can exhaust itself until it has
gathered into the vortex of the legislative j)owers of Con-
gress the whole treaty-making capacity of the government.
For if, notwithstanding the directness and precision with
356 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
which the constitution has marked out tlie department of the
government by which it wills that treaties shall be made, and
has declared that treaties so made shall have the force and
dignity of law, the House of Kepresentatives can insist upon
some particijiation in that high faculty, upon the simple
suggestion that they are sharers in legislative power upon
the subjects embraced by any given#treaty, what remains to
be done, for the transfer to Congress of the entire treaty-
making faculty, as it aj)pears in the constitution, but to show
that Congress have legislative power direct or indirect upon
every matter which a treaty can touch ? And what are the
matters within the practicable range of a treaty, which your
laws cannot either mould, or qualify, or influence ? Imagi-
nation has been tasked for example, by which this question
might be answered. It is admitted that they must be few,
and w^e have been told, as I think, of no more than one. It
is the case of contrahand of ivar. This case has, it seems,
the double recommendation of being what is called an inter-
national case, and a case beyond the utmost grasp of congres-
sional legislation. I remark upon it, that it is no more an
international case than any matter of collision incident to
the trade of two nations with each other. I remark farther,
that a treaty upon the point of contraband of war may in-
terfere, as well as any other treaty, with an act of Congress,
A law encouraging, by a bounty or otherwise, the exporta-
tion of certain commodities, would be counteracted by an
insertion into the list of contraband of war, in a treaty with
England or France, any one of those commodities. The
treaty would look one way, the law another. And various
modes might readily be suggested in which Congress might
BO legislate as to lay the foundation of repugnancy between
its laws and the treaties of the President and Senate with
reference to contraband. I deceive myself greatly if a sub-
ject can be named upon which a like repugnancy might not
occur. But even if it should be practicable to furnish, after
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 357
laborious inquiry and meditation, a meagre and scanty in-
ventory of some half dozen topics, to wliich domestic legisla-
tion cannot be made to extend, will it be pretended that
such was the insignificant and narrow domain designed by
the constitution for the treaty-making power ? It would
appear that there is with some gentlemen a willingness to
distinguish between the legislative power expressly granted
to Congress and that which is merely implied, and to admit
that a treaty may control the results of the latter. I reply
to those gentlemen that one legislative power is exactly
equivalent to another, and that, moreover, the whole legisla-
tive power of Congress may justly be said to be expressly
granted by the constitution, although the constitution does
not enumerate every variety of its exercise, or indicate all the
ramifications into which it may diverge to suit the exigencies
of the times. I reply, besides, that even with the qualifica-
tion of this vague distinction, whatever may be its value or
effect, the principle of the bill leaves no adequate sphere for
the treaty-making power. I reply, finally, that the ac-
knowledged ojDcration of a treaty of peace in repealing laws
of singular strength and unbending character, enacted in
virtue of powers communicated in terminis to Congress, gives
the distinction to the winds.
And now that I have again adverted to the example of a
treaty of peace, let ine call upon you to reflect on the an-
swer which that example affords to all the warnings we have
received in this debate against the mighty danger of intrust-
ing to the only department of the government, which the
constitution supposes can make a treaty, the incidental pre-
rogative of a repealing legislation. It is inconsistent, we
are desired to believe, with the genius of the constitution,
and must be fatal to all that is dear to freemen, that an Ex-
ecutive magistrate and a Senate, who are not immediately
elected by the people, should possess this authority. We
hear from one quarter that if it be so, the public liberty is
358 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
abeady in the grave ; and from another, that the public in-
terest and honor are uj^on the verge of it. But do you not
perceive that this picture of calamity and shame is the mere
figment of excited fancy, disavowed by the constitution as
hysterical, and erroneous in the case of a treaty of peace ?
Do you not see that if there be any thing in this high co-
lored peril, it is a treaty of peace that must realize it ?
Can we in this view compare with the power to make such a
treaty, that of making a treaty of commerce ? Are we
unable to conjecture, while we are thus brooding over antici-
pated evUs which can never happen, that the lofty character
of our country (which is but another name for strength and
power) may be made to droop by a mere treaty of peace ;
that the national pride may be humbled ; the just hopes of
the people blasted ; their courage tamed and broken ; their
prosperity struck to the heart ; their foreign rivals encour-
aged into arrogance and tutored into encroachment, by a
mere treaty of peace ? I confidently trust that, as this
never has been so, it will never be so ; but surely it is just
as possible as that a treaty of commerce should ever be made
to shackle the freedom of this nation, or check its march to
the greatness and glory that await it. I know not, indeed,
how it can seriously be thought that oar liberties are in
hazard from the small witchery of a treaty of commerce,
and yet in none from the i)otent enchantments by which a
treaty of peace may strive to enthral them. I am at a loss to
conceive by what form of words, by what hitherto unheard-
of stipulations, a commercial treaty is to barter away the
freedom of United America, or of any the smallest j)ortion
of it. I cannot figure to myself the possibihty that such a
project can ever find its way into the head or heart of any
man, or set of men, whom this nation may select as the
depositories of its power ; but I am quite sure that an at-
tempt to insert such a project in a commercial treaty, or in
any other treaty, or in any other mode, could work no other
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 359
effect than the destruction of those who should venture to
be parties to it, no matter whether a President, Senate, or a
whole Congress. Many extreme cases have been put for illus-
tration in this debate ; and this is one of them ; and I take
the occasion which it offers to mention, that to argue from
extreme cases is seldom logical, and upon a question of inter-
pretation, never so. We can only bring back the means of
delusioD, if we wander into the regions of fiction, and ex-
plore the. wilds of bare possibihty in search of rules for real
life and actual ordinary cases. By arguing from the possible
abuse of power against the use or existence of it, you may
and must come to the conclusion, that there ought not be,
and is not, any government in this country, or in the world.
Disorganization and anarchy are the sole consequences that
can be deduced from such reasoning. Who is it that may not
abuse the power that has been confided to him ? May not
loe, as well as the other branches -of the government ? And
if we may, does not the argument from extreme cases
prove that we ought to have no power, and that we
have no power ? And does it not, therefore, after hav-
ing served for an instant the purposes of this bill, turn
short upon and condemn its whole theory, which attri-
butes to us, not merely the power which is our own, but
inordinate power, to be gained only by wresting it from
others ? Our constitutional and moral security against the
abuses of the power of the executive government have al-
ready been explained. I will only add, that a great and ma-
nifest abuse of the delegated authority to make treaties would
create no obligation any where. If ever it should occur, as I
confidently believe it never will, the evil must find its cor-
rective in the wisdom and firainess, not of this body only,
but of the whole body of the people co-operating with it.
It is, after all, in the people, upon whose Atlantean shoul-
ders our whole republican system reposes, that you must ex-
pect that recuperative power, that redeeming and regenerat-
360 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ing spirit, by which the constitution is to be purified and
redintegrated when extravagant abuse has cankered it.
In addition to the example of a treaty of peace which I
have just been considering, let me put another, of which
none of us can question the reality. The President may
exercise the power of pardoning, save only in the case of im-
peachments. The power of pardoning is not communicated
by words more precise or comprehensive than the power to
make treaties. But to what does it amount ? Is not every
pardon, jpro hac vice, a repeal of the penal law against
which it gives protection ? Docs it not ride over the law,
resist its command, and extinguish its effect ? Does it not
even control the combined force of judicature and legisla-
tion ? Yet, have we ever heard that your legislative rights
were an exception out of the prerogative of mercy ? Who
has ever pretended that this faculty cannot, if regularly ex-
erted, wrestle with the strongest of your statutes ? I may
be told, that the pardoning power necessarily imports a con-
trol over the penal code, if it be exercised in the form of a
pardon. I answer, the power to make treaties equally im-
ports a power to put out of the w^ay such parts of the civil
code as interfere with its operation, if that power be exerted
in the form of a treaty. There is no difference in their es-
sence. You legislate, in both cases, subject to the power.
And this instance furnishes another answer, as I have already
intimated, to the predictions of abuse, with which, on this
occasion, it has been endeavored to appal us. The pardoning
power is in the President alone. He is not even checked by
the necessity of Senatorial concurrence. He may by his
single fiat extract the sting from your proudest enactments
— and save from their vengeance a convicted offender.
Sir, you have my general notions upon the bill before
you. They have no claim to novelty, I imbibed them from
some of the heroes and sages who survived the storm of that
contest to which America was summoned in her cradle. I
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 361
t
imbibed them from the father of his country. My under-
standing approved them, with the full concurrence of my
heart, when I was much younger than I am now ; and I
feel no disposition to discard them, now that age and feeble-
ness are about to overtake me. I could say more — much
more — upon this high question ; but I want health and
strength. It is, j3erhaps, fortunate for the House that I do ;
as it prevents me from fatiguing them as much as I fatigue
myself
I have searched in vain for the authorship of the " Political
Sketches," or even a sight of the book. There is a vague
impression on my mind, that it was the production of one of
our northern stars. But whoever the author may be, or what
may have become of the work, the following remarks will
reward perusal. It is a most masterly dissertation on style ;
singularly rich, discriminating and profound. Elevated above
the asperity of captious criticism by a nice and accurate per-
ception of true beauty and force, it is a jewel of its kind.
For imagination in its highest form and noblest development
Mr. Pinkney possessed the most unbounded admiration, and
gave to the country and the world the most perfect and ex
quisite illustration of it. But for it, in its uncurbed irreg-
ularity and mystical dreamings, he expressed, as he felt, the
most unmixed disgust and contempt.
It must not be supposed that Mr. Pinkney, in the close
of this article, designed to intimate that Dr. Johnson wrote
with difUciiJtij, for no one knew better than he the actual ra-
pidity with which he wrote ; but only to reaffirm what John-
son said of himself, "that whenever he said a good thing he
seemed to labor." Dr. Johnson, speaking of Addison, used
to say that he was the Baphael of essay writers.
362 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
REMARKS ON "POLITICAL SKETCHES.'
BY WILLIAM PINKNEY.
When I first i^erused this valuable performance, I con-
demned it without hesitation, as a work wherein the imagi-
nation had been jDermitted to flutter at large, unaccompa-
nied by the judgment. I thought the great subject of the
author's consideration lightly and gracefully handled ; and
the remarks he has bestowed on Montesquieu, at the end of
his section on A^irtue, more properly applicable to himself.
He appeared to me far more solicitous to please his reader by
a labored floridity of style, and a succession of gay images,
than to enlighten the understanding, by accuracy of thought
and justness of concei)tion.
But upon a more attentive perusal of his work, I am
thoroughly convinced of its merits. As far as I am able to
decide, it discovers a clear discriminating head — a solidity of
reflection — an acquaintance with history, men, and the prin-
ciples of government, and an animated fancy. It is not how-
ever without faults. Want of originality is apparent in the
two sections of Virtue and Religion. Again ; the author's
meaning is often so concealed by a redundancy of uncommon
and figurative expressions, that it is accessible to none, but
those geniuses whom Johnson speaks of, who " grasp a sys-
tem by intuition," except through the medium of unremitted
application. Perspicuity is frequently sacrificed to that anx-
iety which is natural to a young writer, of strewing over his
subject with the flowers of rhetoric, and embeUishiug reflec-
tion with the graces of expression. The tinsel of Lexiphanic
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 363
language in many places involves his argument in almost in-
extricable mystery, and pains whom it was intended to j^lease,
by making them toil for instruction, when an easy, natural
communication was practicable. To be learnedly incompre-
hensible was certainly not the author's intention. He wrote
to be admired, but he wrote also to be understood. The
cool approbation which is given to solidity of thought, could
not content him. He sought by splendid imagery to gain
that tribute of approbation from the heart, which is given
to the warm glow of rhetoric. But nothing more complete-
ly removes an argument from the reach of general compre-
hension, than what is commonly, though falsely called, an
elegance of diction. Paradoxically as it may sound, its very
lustre is the parent of darkness. By fascinating the imagi-
nation it monopolizes the attention, and the plain simplicity
of truth, surrounded by the dazzling glitter of a highly col-
ored style escapes the eye of observation. In works of mere
entertainment, the impropriety of this species of writing in
some measure ceases ; but surely to su2)j)ort a train of rea-
soning in such a manner as to oblige a majority of readers to
apply almost every moment to a dictionary, upon a question,
too, where the nicety of discrimination is necessary at every
turn, to destroy apparent analogies — where the under-
standing (independent of the obstacles thrown in its way by
perplexing figures and unusual words) can with difficulty
pursue the chain of reflection ; and where, in the combined
consideration of human nature, facts, and principles, the con-
clusions must be embarrassed rather than illustrated, if not
perspicuously treated — is at least impolitic in him who seeks
to lead the mind to information and conviction.
In the world of taste, the plain simple language of Ad-
dison has been preferred to that of the Rambler, The
periods of the last impress us with the painful idea of labor ;
and give us a disagreeable conception of a tedious process by
364 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
which every sentence was tortured into form. I would ap-
ply the same remark to the Political Sketches.
When the ardor of our author's fancy shall have cooled
by time — when his notions of a writer's true reputation
shall have become juster — ^when he shall have learned to
prefer that style which explains his subject, instead of plung-
ing it into obscurity ; and when he shall be convinced that to
bury the matter of his discussion beneath a profusion of
gaudy trappings, is only the affectation of elegance, he will
in all probability be among the first ornaments of the Hter-
ary world, and do honor to his country and himself.
I come now to consider the character of Mr. Pinkney as
a man ; to sum up with an impartial and truthful pen those
moral and intellectual qualities that united to make him an
ornament of society.
His personal appearance possessed a goodly degree of
dignity and grace. Tall and finely formed, with a head ex-
quisitely shaped, forehead high, broad, massive and slightly
retreating, eyes of the softest blue, rather heavy in repose,
but capable of tlie intensest and most varied expression
when roused in the excitement of debate, a mouth of un-
common sweetness and flexibility, soft brown hair, scarcely
tinged with gray when death laid him low, and a character-
istic neatness and elegance of address — ^he was a man re-
markable to look upon. It is almost amusing to glance at
the caricature of him published many years ago in the " North
American," and one can only smile in wonder at the
strange want of resemblance it exhibits.
Affable in the immediate cu'cle of his friends, he was
rather inaccessible to strangers. He was never very talk-
ative ; and yet when disengaged and not too much abstract-
ed by press of business, he was the life and light of society.
On such occasions his wit sparkled and flashed, giving to
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 365
his conversation a nameless and indescribable charm, not
unlike intellectual fascination. His very taciturnity gave to
his colloquial powers, when he chose to exercise them, a
more remarkable and striking effect. He was a great ad-
mirer of ladies, and always paid a marked tribute of respect
to that refinement and elegance of taste and intuitive per-
ception, which constitute at once the beauty and marvel of
the female character. No one knew better than he how to
draw out its pecuhar powers, and elicit to advantage its
finer and softer sensibilities. During his frequent visits to
Annapolis, he loved to while away an hour of the evening in
an old mansion, which was the home of elegance and the
chief centre of attraction, the residence of the late Mrs.
L , a lady of whom it were impossible to speak
without seeming exaggeration, whose loveliness of character
was only equalled by her vigor of intellect and suavity of
manners — who in life was the honored companion of the
young and the old ; and at whose funeral the legislature of
Maryland considered it a sad privilege to walk as mourners.
For this lady, and the circle of beauty and intelligence that
was ever congregated around her, Mr. Pinkney entertained
the most unbounded admiration ; and on more than one oc-
casion of public interest, in the discussion of the forum, did
he exhibit his sense of her presence by a display of eloquence
which he knew she could both appreciate and understand.
He never presumed to talk nonsense to ladies,, or lowered
himself, as some great men are wont to do, to the supposed
measure of their ability, for he was one of those who be-
lieved them to be in all respects, by character, education,
and intellect, worthy of the companionship of those who are
so much dependant upon them for sympathy and support.
He had without doubt formed his opinion of the mind and
heart of woman from the noblest specimen ; and knew by
early experience that there was nothing too abstruse or sub-
lime for the one to grasp, or too magnanimous, exalted, or
366 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
ennobling for the other to embrace. Believing them to be
capable of the highest intellectual enjoyment, and eminently
skilled in intellectual taste, he conversed with them as
equals ; and his conversation was on that account j)eculiarly
attractive and instructive. He often expressed the opinion,
that no great man ever lived, who had not a highly intel-
lectual and clear-headed mother. Of one of the ladies of
his acquaintance now living (with whom he corresponded
when abroad), he was accustomed to say, that her letters
gave him more real pleasure and delight, than those received
from any other source. The letters which passed between
them were for a long time in the possession of my own fa-
mily ; and were a truly brilliant passage of arms, in which
grace and beauty triumphed on cither side. They were,
however, lost, to the regret of the author of this memoir.
He was singularly free from the spirit of detraction.
Tender of the feelings and motives of others, he seldom, if
ever, permitted any thing of the sort to pass by witliout re-
buke. In the company of the young, especially, who are too
liable to be betrayed into sarcastic and ill-natured com-
ment upon the conduct of others, he was ever ready to
pour oil on the troubled waters, and vindicate the aspersed,
or at all events silence and confound the asperser.
He possessed very high veneration for consistent and
humble piety. Well versed in the best old Church of England
theology, and accustomed to hold frequent and delighted
converse with. Hooker, Taylor, et id omne genus, he was pe-
culiarly clear in his views of its true character. On one oc-
casion, illustrative of this high veneration for all that was
pure and holy, and this aversion to disparaging comment,
when seated at a festive board in the city of Annapolis, a
young member of the bar chanced to mention the insanity of
a lady of distinction, and as a proof conclusive of the fact,
stated that she was running into all the lanes and alleys of
Baltimore, and ferreting out objects of charity from among
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY, 367
their filthy and wretched inmates. Mr. Pinkney turned
and said, with one of his sweetest smiles, and in a tone of
most melting pathos, " what a beautiful combination of mo-
ral virtues to constitute mental derangement, piety towards
God, and benevolence towards man." The only criticism,
said a lady to me, who often went with him to public wor-
ship, I ever remember to have heard him make was, " praise
that sermon if you dare."
He was a stanch friend ; although in the selection of a
friend, he followed the rule so beautifully and forcibly laid
down by Shakspeare :
'• The friends thou hast and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thj' soul with hooks of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new hatched unfledged comrade."
Hamlet.
His sensibilities were singularly warm for a man of re-
serve. His heart beat responsive to the touch of kindness.
His zeal in the service of those he loved knew no bounds.
His eloquence and legal learning were not unfrequently
poured forth in pleading their cause and defending their
rights and honor ; and the offering was made altogether
v/ithout the hope or the acceptance of reward. A gentleman,
not now living, who lost a suit in chancery which involved
his all, as he supposed, because of some incidental expression
of Mr. Pinkney, went to him ; and he told me that he en-
tered immediately with all his heart and soul into the in-
vestigation, and never rested until he had reversed the deci-
sion of the court below, and established him in the full pos-
session of his lost estate, and would never hear of the least
compensation. It was a friend's claim upon his sympathy
in a cause he knew to be just, and the only remuneration he
could or would receive, separate and above the pleasure of
the deed, was gratitude for the service rendered. The au-
dience were in tears, no eye was dry, while a friend's voice
368 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
was uplifted in the defence of a friend's rights. There are wit-
nesses to the truth of this simple fact, now alive, whose tes-
timony could be invoked were it necessary. This was by no
means an uncommon occurrence. One of the most powerful
and touching speeches he ever delivered before a jury was in
defence of a near relative of a lady with whom he boarded ;
and long will the echoes of that memorable effort live in the
memory of those who heard it. Upper Marlborough was the
place, a juiy of Prince George's County the arbiters, and the
tears of a lone widow restored to the embrace of one she
loved, the only reward of the eloquent advocate. This kind-
ness of disposition and warmth of friendship were exhibited
in behalf of the poor and uninfluential more readily, than
those whom it might appear to be politic to defend.
One of the strongest proofs of the warmth and genero-
sity of his feelings is furnished in the fact, that he never
forfeited a friendship he once learned to honor and trust.
With Jeflferson, Madison and Monroe, he continued on terms
of the closest intimacy and confidence. The following ex-
tract, from a letter written just before his final return to the
country and but a short time before his death, will show in
what light the last continued to regard him ; and there were
few men living, who had a better opportunity of knowing
and understanding Mr. Pinkney's character : —
" I pray you be assured that I view your forbearing to
name me for the court of England exactly as you do, and
that I rejoice you took that course. It would certainly have
been hazardous, and moreover, I had no wish to go to Eng-
land, or to remain any longer abroad. The office of Attor-
ney-General would not have suited me, as I have some time
since taken measures for resuming my residence in Balti-
more, where I hope to retrieve the losses, which my missions
could not fail to inflict upon me in a pecuniary sense ; but
they have been incurred in the public ser^'ice, and if Pro-
vidence spares and assists me will not long be felt. Your
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 369
friendly wislies are really invaluable. I do not want office,
but I highly prize your esteem.
" Notwithstanding my anxiety to get liome^ I shall quit
this station with some regret. They have been very kind to
me here. My place will doubtless be supplied by a man
much more able and distinguished, and at the same time of
equal discretion."
This letter was written from St. Petersburg, where Mr.
Pinkney was highly esteemed.
Although not indiscriminate in his friendships, where his
heart was given, ifc was the heart in its fulness, warm, gush-
ing, simple and confiding as a child's. To both the friends
and the scenes of his early youth, he turned with undimin-
ished interest and pleasure in the close of his brilliant
career.
He was an affectionate husband and father ; and evinced
the greatest anxiety to promote the welfare of his children in
every way possible. He had noble views on the subject of
education. I have it in my power to present those \dews to
the public, for the first time, in a letter written by him to
my father. It contains the very breathings of his soul, and
possesses an additional value, viz., that it was intended
solely for the eye of a brother's sympathy, from whom he
concealed nothing, and was never designed for publication.
It is just what he thought on a subject of the most absorb-
ing interest.
MR. PINKNEY TO HIS BKOTHER NINIAN.
"London, 1st June, 1800.
" Deap. NiNiAN, — Your last letter has given me great
hopes of William. If I should be disappointed in regard to
him, I shall feel it severely, and I shall certainly form my
judgment of him impartially when I return. We are some-
times disposed to think too favorably of our own, and to
24
370 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNET.
permit our understandings to he blinded by our aflfectlons,
I am not of that temper. He will find me able to deter-
mine accurately of his jjrogress, without being biassed by a
parent's fondness, to imagine excellence where it does not
exist. I have perfect confidence, however, that he will not
need this sort of bias. On your care of him (for which I
cannot be too grateful), I have implicit reliance that you
will give him sound principles, both by your instruction and
exam})le ; that you will incite him to early habits of honor-
able thinking and manly feeling ; that you will teach him
that the whole complexion of his future life depends upon
his boyish years ; that you will inspire him with that just
ambition, which, having excellence for its object, is the best
security for its attainment ; that you will impress upon his
mind the indispensable necessity of regular application and
systematic industry as the only sure aids of talent where it
exists, and the only effectual substitute for it where it is
wanting ; and in a Avord, that you will form him to Imow-
ledge and virtue, with skill and attention equal, if not su-
perior, to my own, I have no doubt. There are, indeed,
some things in the education of a boy which men are apt to
neglect, but which, I trust, you will think too important to
be slighted. I mean certain principles, moral and religious,
which we allow ourselves to refer to the future, in the hope
that they will grow up of themselves or be acquired as the
mind advances to maturity. A motlier teaches them in in-
fancy, and stamps them upon the heart, not by formal lec-
tures, but by reiterated admonition or reproof, as occasions
present themselves. Among those principles the detestable
nature of a falsehood deserves to be strongly inculcated.
This is a subject upon which half mankind are casuists ; but
I would not have my son among this class of moralists — with
the great and essential truths of religion, the outline of the
Christian creed, and the prominent duties involved in it, a
boy cannot be too soon possessed. I would have my son in
LIFE OP WILLIAM PINKNEY. 371
early life instructed, to avoid the fashionable infidelity of the
times. I would have him reared in the hosom of a faith, by
which no man was ever made worse, and all may hope to be
made better : a sound and rational piety (the surest warrant
of happiness in this world as well as in the next) is rarely
to be expected, unless it be the result of instruction com-
menced when the mind is susceptible of deep impressions,
and continued till they are firmly fixed. The fanatic is
usually a recent convert to mystical doctrines he does not
understand ; and the sceptic in religion too often owes the
doubts that torment him to the unpardonable negligence of
those to whose care his childhood was confided.
'* I know it is unnecessary to write thus to you ; but you
will place what I have said to the account of my anxiety for
this boy's welfare, and excuse it.
" I have nothing to add to this scrawl, worth the writing.
The French have opened the campaign on the Rhine with bril-
liant success ; and in Italy, the early prosperity of the Aus-
trians seems likely to end in defeat and ruin, A friend to
the peace of the world knows not to which side he should
give his wishes. The ambitious views of the Emperor of
Germany &c., &c., are little better than those of republican
France.
" Each party is tolerably honest in adversity, and . be-
comes the reverse in the hour of triumph. Americans should
learn to be the partisans of neither. I beg you to be as-
sured that I think of you always with true affection.
" P.S.— Is^ Julij, 1800.— I have kept this letter for the
purpose of sending it by * * * who has remained here
longer than wa.s expected.
" You will see by the public papers that my conjecture
as to the result of the campaign in Italy was correct, al-
though at that time the general opinion was rather the other
way. The overthrow of the Austrians is signal and decisive.
Nothing could be more absolute and complete. The Em-
372 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
peror will now be driven to make peace, and Bonaparte of-
fers it to bim in tbe bour of success and triumpb, and doubt-
less witb sincerity. Tbis country must follow tbe example
of Austria."
Tbe campaign on tbe Ebine lias bitberto been manifestly
subservient to tbat of Italy, but it seems already to assume a
more active cbaracter, and if peace does not speedily inter-
pose tbe Austrian s under Kray will experience a fate similar
to tbose under Melas. Sucli a constellation of mibtary
talent bas seldom (if ever) been seen as may now be found
in tbe Frencb armies and at tbe head of Frencb afiairs. It
is to tbis circumstance tbat bave been principally owing tbe
splendid events in Italy and tbe masterly though less active
operations in Germany. Tbat Kray and Melas have been
outgeneralled is universally admitted. Tbe precise co-opera-
tion between the two French armies, although so far apart,
towards the accompHshment of one object, is a proof, if any
was wanting, of the superior intelligence of those by whom
their movements were planned and conducted.
" We hear nothing of our commissioners at Paris. It is
believed tbat they are going on well ; but with what speed
(although I hear from Murray now and then) we are ignorant.
" You are likely I perceive to have a contest for Pres-
ident and Vice-President. So far removed as I am, I ought
to abstain from all interference on the subject ; but I must
express an opinion that Mr. Adams's administration has been,
in the main, wise and proper. So far as I have been able
to judge of the leading measures of his administration they
have been politic and just in substance. Tbat some of them
should create clamor was to be expected — and tbis must be
looked for let who will be President.
" Mr. Adams bas done nothing to deserve to be discarded.
He came into power at a very dehcate crisis, and the
delicacy of tbat crisis was much increased by the circumstance
of his having General Washington for his immediate and
LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNET. 373
only predecessor in office. Slight errors should be overlooked
in a man who means well, and who has acted essentially right
in situations peculiarly arduous and embarrassing."
This letter abounds in wise and judicious sentiments. It
is a faithful transcript of his paternal feelings, and will secure
for him the thanks of all, who are themselves concerned for
the proper training of their children.
Mr. Pinkney was too severe a student to mingle much in
general society. His practice was too extensive to admit of
much recreation. Duty triumi^hed over the yearnings of a
social disposition ; and pleasure with him was always made
secondary to duty. But still at home, in the privacy of his
own hearthstone, or abroad, in the centre of society, he was
the finished gentleman, and contributed all in his power to the
pleasure and entertainment of those around him. Never, as
many can testify, did the charm of his eloquence or the
salient vigor of his intellect ajipear more fascinating, than
in the presence of a friendship he loved and trusted.
He was a man of elegant hospitality, and always welcomed
to his board those who chose to share in its conviviality. He
knew not the love of money, and nothing gave him truer de-
light than to shower it down in blessings on the pathway of
others.
His favorite literary works are not known. But that he
delighted especially in Shakespeare, Milton, Addison and
Johnson, is well known. The former he never tired in read-
ing, and thoroughly comprehended. Perfectly at home in all
the polite literature of the mother country, and extensively
and critically read in the poets, he was admirably qualified
to appreciate that splendid monument of wise and judicious
criticism, " The Lives of the Poets," and detect its faults.
The copy now in my possession affords abundant proof of both
the pleasure and care with which he read.
The Bible he was accustomed to regard not only as the
word of God, but as the very fii-st of literary works ; incom-
374 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
parably above and beyond them all, of ancient or modern
times. He studied it closely, and his mind teemed with
its beauties. Hooker was also an especial favorite, particu-
larly his magnificent first book. He loved the Church of
England, and esteemed its theologians perfect masters of
style and matter.
He was fond of his i)encil, and often sketched for the
amusement and gratification of his children — and singular
to state, his sketches were executed with the skill of a mas-
ter, and only wanted the aid of experience to entitle them to
the highest rank in artistic excellence. He was passionately
fond of nature, and loved to revel in its beauties. In the
very trees and flowers he found a sort of companionship. On
one occasion, illustrative of this ardent attachment for ex-
ternal nature, he observed that a favorite tree, one of the
monarchs of the forest, had been cut down, and it stirred his
soul to the highest degree of eloquent rebuke. He inveighed
against the deed, and in his own expressive language affirmed
" that the growth of centuries was ever venerable."
His recreation was walking and hunting. Of the latter
he was particularly fond. There was an excitement about
it congenial to his ardent temperament. He was a capital
shot, and was capable of great endurance. He was a man of
heart in every thing he undertook. His soul was in his
business and his pleasures, his study and his pastime. He
did nothing languidly. Entlmsiastic and aspiring, he strove
to excel in every thing he attempted.
He was a man of the nicest sense of honor. Truth was
the grace he was most ambitious to exhibit in all his inter-
course with his fellow men. A gentleman now residing in
Kew-York, whose letter is before me, relates the following
conversation that passed between Mr. Emmet and himself.
I cannot, said this celebrated and eloquent lawyer, pay Mr.
Pinkney a greater compliment than by telling you that in
all his arguments before the Supreme Court he was never
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 375
known to cite a single authority that was not on record pre-
cisely as he cited it, and so fully was the court satisfied with
this fact, that they never thought it necessary to test the
accuracy of the citation. It gives me the more pleasure to
refer to this, because it proves what Mr. Emmet thought of
bis illustrious rival, and how he spoke of him in the freedom
of conversation. Mr, Pinkney was not a man of professions,
and yet to use his own language in a letter to a friend, " he
had a good memory and a grateful heart." The reciproca-
tion of kindness was the cordial of his life. Domestic in his
tastes and habits, nothing afforded him more lively satisfac-
tion, when the calls of business permitted, than to gather
around him his children and the old friends whom he never
changed for new ones, and the young men of promise in
whose advancement he took an intense interest, and live
over again the days of his boyhood and indulge in a real
sunsliine of heart cheerfulness. Even when he could not
afford from press of business to contribute his full share to
the pleasure of his friends, he would pass to and fro from his
study to his parlor in the course of the evening and endeavor
to make the best atonement in his power for the stern neces-
sity of his absence. Such was the discipline of his mind, he
could resume the thread of his most abstruse argument in an
instant, and go on consolidating the chain, as though he had
suffered no interruption. There was in one word a sort of
pensive cheerfulness about him that captivated the heart,
and a warm sympathy where the friends of his bosom were
concerned, which none who ever shared it can forget.
It is said that Mr, Pinkney was inordinately ambitious ;
and I am not disposed to deny that his ambition may have
exceeded the limits that are wisely and in mercy j)rescribed
to the aspirations of men. But there was nothing low or sordid
in his thirst after distinction. If he were ambitious, it was not
to appear to be what he was not, but to be what he felt he
should become. He was ambitious to be truly learned and
376 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
truly groat. He selected the profession of the law, and al-
ways continued to pursue it with delight, because it was not
possible to acquire in it a spurious and undeserved reputation.
If he sought to occupy the rank of the first of orators, or
the greatest of lawyers, it was by giving expression to such
sentiments as could alone proceed from the lips of that rarest
and most brilliant creation of God, and exhibiting those un-
questionable fruits of ripe and profound legal learning, that
could alone proceed from the other. He knew that the path
of solid distinction was only open to the patient and laborious
student, and in striving to make the most rapid and advanced
progress in it, he was contented to toil on, amid drudging
labor to the end, in his endeavor and determination to win
the unfading laurel. He never resorted to low and vulgar
artifice to gain a fraudulent reputation. He built upon no
other man's foundation the superstructure of his vast renown.
He rose on no other man's ruin. In fair and open contest,
by dint of persevering and indefatigable and intense exer-
tion, he fought for victory ; and it may be truly said of him
that he wore not a garland he did not fairly win. Self-
culture in the exercise of a self-disciphne, rarely if ever
equalled, was the true secret of his success. Conscious of the
possession of rare intellectual endowments, and grateful for
the gift, he labored to make the most of them by constant and
unremitting diligence. Thus far he was ambitious. Eager
to excel, but only by endeavoring to deserve the pre-eminence
he sought. Too eager to excel it may have been for his own
happiness and good ; but still neither moved by envy nor poi-
soned by jealousy, in his efforts to excel. He recognized in
his competitors the first men of the old and the new world,
and he met them like a man, in the spirit of a man, who
felt the terrible strokes of their stalwart arms, and acknow-
ledged their inimitable power and dialectic skill, and who
spurned the resort to underhand trick as self-degradation.
Feeling the grandeur of the exciting race, he laid aside every
LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 377
thing that could impede his progress. Pleasure, self-ease,
society, were all not only resolutely but cheerfully relinquish-
ed, to secure the palm for which he struggled. Superficial
he was not ; self-sufldcient he was not. Never satisfied to
remain where he was, his motto was ever onward. His con-
stant aim was to be what he wished men to think him ; and
what he knew, by a prudent husbandry of his resources,
he could readily make himself to be. There was a sub-
limity in this deathless desire to improve to the highest pos-
sible degree the faculties of a noble intellect, which com-
mands our admiration. There was a moral power in that
severe discipline of the mind, for its own improvement, which
was never relaxed for a moment, that made its influence felt
by the very first minds of the profession. It sought no
ephemeral end by illegitimate means. Distinction alone
was not the boon it craved. Applause was not alone the in-
cense it coveted. Distinction as the reward of real attain-
ment ; professional applause as the fruit of gigantic pro-
fessional labor, — this it was which moved the soul of Pink-
ney, and fired his noble sj^irit. Solid reputation, based upon
real merit, was what he desired. So exceedingly jealous was
he of the moral beauty of this element in the reputation he
sought, that his friends were apprised of his intention to
abandon the field of professional duty, the very moment he
was conscious of any diminution of zeal in study or inherent
failure of his mental faculties. With less labor he might
have lived upon the reputation he had acquired, and occa-
sionally poured forth the higher specimens of his power ; but
that would not have filled the measure, or realized the idea
he had formed of the ambition worthy of his profession.
Ambition I know is a dangerous thing. It sometimes de-
generates into a mean and pitiful vice. But such was not
the ambition of William Pinkney. There is nothing even
in his most private correspondence, or the most unreserved
communings of his friendship, that savored of iUiberaUty or
378 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
meanness. There was, it is true, a reserve in liis profession-
al bearing, that was distasteful to many, and misinterpreted
by more. Mr. Kennedy has done him justice in this respect.
He appeared in the forum in the midst of his competitors
like a knight ever equipped for battle, and he walked the
field with knit brow and cautious step, ready for a tilt wher-
ever he met a foeman worthy of his steel. On such occasions
there was at times too much the semblance of hauteur
imparted to his air and mien. But still he was not wanting
in courtesy. He always engaged his adversary in fair fight
and with honorable weapons. It will be remembered that
Judge Story said of him (page 252, vol. i.), "that he was
fair in not urging points on which he did not rely with con-
fidence, and acute in seizing the proper point of attack, and
driving tlie enemy from it by storm." This is the deliber-
ate and honest asseveration of one who knew him well. It
was a grapple of mind with mind, learning with learning,
eloquence with eloquence.
His ambition did not blind him to the real merit of oth-
ers, neither did it excite envy in his bosom. He admired the
talents of a Hamilton, Madison, Dexter, Dallas, Jones, Em-
met, Stor)', Marshall, AVebstcr, Clay and others ; and to the
worth of most, if not all of them, there are intersj^ersed
either in his letters or his speeches, most exphcit and noble
tributes of praise. They were, most of them, his competi-
tors, and he disputed with them, inch by inch, the palm of
ascendency ; and he disputed to the last with the keen
eye and practised skill of the most consummate gladiator.
But although he was accustomed to press his advantages with
vast dexterity, he was not blind to their exalted mental and
moral worth. I veiy much question whether any man ever
paid more frequent and spontaneous tribute to the genius or
acquirements of his competitors tlian he. One thing is cer-
tain ; his private correspondence is defiled by as Httle acri-
mony or bitterness of criticism upon his contemporaries, or
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 379
disgusting egotism, as any. In his more familiar converse
he spoke freely of measures and of works ; sparingly of men
and of motives. He was perhaps as little personal in his many
earnest straggles of the forum and the Senate chamher, as
the least offensive and most guarded of his competitors.
To the younger members of the bar he was, at all times,
the kind, considerate and sympathizing friend, the delighted
and interested eulogizer of their endeavors to ascend the rug-
ged hill of fame, " to drink the nectar and breathe the ambro-
sial perfume," He loved to encourage them in their first
struggles to be gi-eat, and sought to stimulate their ambi-
tion, and elevate their professional self-respect by judicious
praise and well directed criticism.
I do not question that Mr. Pinkney had his faults and
weaknesses Kke other men. But, with Story, I aver they
were trivial, when compared with his virtues — "lighter
than the linnet's wing." To use the language of Vir-
ginia's noble orator, Randolph of Roanoke: "He had in-
deed his faults, his foibles ; I should rather say sins. Who
is without them ? Let such, such only, cast the first stone.
And these foibles, if you will, which every body could see,
because every body is clear-sighted with regard to the faults
and foibles of others, he I have no doubt would have been
the first to acknowledge on a proper representation of them."
These are noble words, uttered in the same breath that told
the world that the last act of intercourse between them was
an act the recollection of which he would not be without for
all the offices that all the men in the United States have
filled or ever shall fill. What that act was, was only known
to him who witnessed it ; but where the recollection is so
sweet and fragrant, the knowledge is a thing of naught. I
am not conscious that I have colored too highly a single trait ;
and full well I know, I have not so combined or developed
them as they were combined and developed in the daily
walk.
Justum et tenacem propositi vinun.
380 LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY.
MARSHALL, STORY, WEBSTER, CLAY, CAL-
HOUN, PINKNEY.
Marshall, Story, Pinkney, and Webster, four of the
greatest names in American jurisprudence. All now gone
to their rest. The first two may be said without a figure to
linger still in the highest forum of this nation, and give
forth law to the country and the world. The forms of Mar-
shall and of Story (alike calm and dignified, and yet all un-
like in the living lineaments of manly beauty), the befitting
sanctuaries of minds free from prejudice, and well nigh intu-
itive in judgment, have not yet faded from the memory of
the living. The form of the third is not yet a stranger to
the hall, that has oft resounded with his trumpet tones.
Marshall and Story dictated law to the nation. They ex-
pounded the constitution of the freest and noblest Republic
known to the page of history. The world lias learned to ven-
erate their judgments. They were lumina justitice in foro
justitia\ All men loved to do them reverence. No man
can wish, for the judicatures of the land, a more exalted des-
tiny or a fuller measure of glory, than the permission to
wear their mantle and emulate their greatness, by imbibing
their lofty principles. Pinkney took, in his hands, the same
inimitable constitution. Fresh from the society of its most
revered authors, and animated by its stupendous principles,
he unfolded it to the view of the American people, and as-
sisted in the establishment of those great principles of con-
struction, which are at once the ornament and the strength
of that more than Egyptian pyramid, reared by the hands of
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 381
a Marshall and a Story, to the lasting honor of American
jurisprudence. Webster lived to prove that the highest in-
tellectual endowments and the j)i'ofoundest legal learning
perished not with them. He wore the mantle of his three
great predecessors (for a time his cotemporaries on earth),
with not less grace than dignity. He enjoyed the enviable
title of defender and expounder of the constitution. It is
not transcending truth to say of him, that that precious in-
strument has been made more illustrious by the surpassing
brilliancy and depth of his giant intellect, and that ages yet
to come will hold it in still higher reverence as they view it
in the gorgeous light of his masterly commentary. There
was a rare combination in the character of Pinkney and
Webster ; solid as the granite, profound as the ocean, bril-
liant as the diamond, they were, it seems to me, the purest
specimens of all that was great in oratory and masterful in
reasoning. And now that the shades of Marshall and Story
live but in name, and the echoes of Pinkney^s eloquence and
profound legal learning are heard amid the hills of his own
beautiful Potomac, and Webster, too, is dead, and Marsh-
field is desolate ; we may say, with j)roud exultation, in
Webster's own words, " the past, at least, is secure," and
Columbia shall be remembered as the abode of eloquence
and the home of genius. In naming Mr. Pinkney and Mr.
Webster together, and weaving a like brilliant and imperish-
able garland for each, it must not be supposed that I mean
to intimate that they were wholly alike in the quality and
character of their minds. They resembled each other in
that feature which made them so unlike any other of their
illustrious compeers. They were alike in the wonderful
combination of depth and brilliancy. But in most other
respects they differed from each other as widely as they did
from the more distinguished of their competitors. Clay was
far reaching, endowed with extraordinary sagacity, full of
sterling common sense, bold as a lion, the most perfect mas-
382 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
ter of the power to move and mould the masses, empha-
tically and par excellence the orator of the peojile. He was
the first statesman of the world. Almost intuitive in judg-
ment, he was equal to any emergency, and could steer the
noble ship of state through the most difficult and appalling
crisis. His courage always rose with the occasion, and his
admirable decision of character gave a sort of charm to
the policy he pursued, and was the chief element of his suc-
cess. His tall and majestic figure beautifully harmonized
with his frankness of disposition ; while his voice, which was
the very melody of eloquence, capable of the most marvel-
lous modulation, pre-eminently fitted him for a leader in
the fervor and excitement of debate. The great pacificator
of the country, he more than once calmed the spirit of the
storm, as it rose in its fury, and threatened to pour desola-
tion in its whirlwind path ; so that without the charge of
extravagance, we may ajiply to him those beautiful words of
the poet :
'• Tumida aequora placat
CoUectasque fugat nubes, solcmque rcducit."
He led on in the Missouri compromise, and Pinkney fol-
lowed. He led on in the last, not less glorious, compromise,
and Webster followed. The glory of the invention and
guiding policy was in either case Clay's ; the noblest defence
was Pinkney's and Webster's. The chivalrous and heroic
Clay will be remembered as long as the Union lasts, and the
marvel of his eloquence, identified with the floating stars,
will recall the splendors of the elder Pitt, and make immor-
tal the principles of freedom it so brilhantly illustrated.
His name is still the watchword which is recognized by
every sentinel on guard, as the countersign ; and his memory
is still, as it ever will be, a tower of strength.
The genius of Calhoun (which delighted to revel in the
midst of its own splendid theories, remarkably rich and
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNER. 383
fruitful), united to his singularly strong and vigorous intel-
lect, will command the admiration of the world, so long as
originality and force are properly appreciated. But Clay,
with all his incomparable excellence as a popular orator and
statesman, was defective in profound logical power ; and Cal-
houn, with all his unquestioned intellectuality, was defective
in judgment and splendor of eloquence. Their eminence
was restricted to the two great dej)artments of oratory and
statesmanship.
Mr. Pinkney and Mr. Webster were left to illustrate that
rare combination, which secured for them like pre-eminence
as lawyers, orators, and statesmen. For close, severe, con-
nected, logical reasoning, they were unsurpassed. Perfect
masters of the science of the law ; inimitable expounders of
the constitution, they were as profound as brilliant, as deep
as eloquent. They were tried in the severest school and in
the presence of the most critical and competent judges. The
very first court of the nation, in the very zenith of its fame,
was not ashamed to sit at the feet of either, and learn the
true principles of constitutional interpretation. They w^ere,
indeed, amici curiae. But still they were very unlike each
other, notwithstanding this wonderful resemblance. Pink-
ney was rapid. He jjoured forth torrents of forensic elo-
quence and vehement argumentation in a swollen stream,
that seemed to be absolutely exhaustless. Engaged in the
most diversified and extensive practice, he never faiJed to in-
fuse the magic of his eloquence and transparency of his rea-
soning into his numberless arguments. Mr. Webster could
be eloquent ; at times most eloquent ; and on such occasions
the effect was irresistible. He was calm, collected, delibe-
rate in the main ; and yet his great soul was sometimes
roused, and his lion spirit stirred, and then there was the
lightning flash in his eye, and the thunder tone on his
tongue. At such times, there was an awful sublimity in his
thoughts, and a bold, massive structure in his style, that
384 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
were admirably adapted to the occasion. He bore down,
like a roused lion, upon his antagonist, and desperate and
well-timed were the blows of his stalwart arm. He was
master of every passion, and his countenance glowed with
the most varying expression. I was privileged to witness
one of those noblest bursts of oratorical power in the cele-
brated Gerard Will case. Never shall I forget the wither-
ing scorn, the biting sarcasm, the deep affecting pathos and
fearful sublimity, that alternately thrilled and delighted the
wrapt assembly.
Mr. Pinkney was not less self-coUected. But fired by the
brilliancy of his genius, and transj)orted by the sublimity of
his thoughts, his warm southern temperament was more
quickly and keenly roused, and he always rose in grandeur
before the court, and was not confessedly excelled by any.
He saw his conclusion with an eagle eye, hurried on with
giant strides to reach it, and failed not of his mark. He
forced you along " pari passu" in breathless wonder, in a
very whui, not of declamation, but of overpowering and
matchless argumentation. And yet, in the highest excite-
ment of his fervor and rushing impetuosity, he was ever per-
fect master of himself
Webster required some powerful stimulus to draw out his
giant faculties. Pinkney never was without such stimulus.
It was as natm'al for him to be eloquent as to speak.
Pinkney' s, was the outgushing of thought and expression
from ah overflowing fountain ; Webster's, the welling up
of thought and expression, not less rich, but less copious
and free in its flow. They were more Demosthenic than Ci-
ceronian in their style of eloquence, and yet modelled upon
neither. Vigo7' and 2^e'*'spicuiti/ were the chief characteris-
tics. Admirable scholars, they were singularly happy in the
choice and arrangement of their words ; not less admirable
logicians, they were equally happy in the classification and
disposition of their ideas. Webster never had occasion
LIFE OF "WILLIAM PINKNEY. 385
to recall a word or re-arrange a sentence ; but tlien he was,
even in his most excited mood, what would be termed a slow
speaker. Pinkney was not less skilful in the structure of his
sentences and the choice of his words. He was never known
to be at fault for either. This was the more wonderful, be-
cause, in the greatest rapidity of utterance, there was never
a pause for either language or ideas. Neither of them was
ever excelled in the ability to explore all the depths of a
subject ; and though diifering widely in their peculiar powers
of imagination, neither of them was ever excelled in the
beauty and magnificence of coloring they could impart to
the deductions and processes of reasoning. Mr. "Webster
sometimes drew a vast crowd to the courts of justice, and at
times riveted the attention of the audience. Mr. Pinkney
never spoke without drawing a crowd, and wielding a tre-
mendous influence over the promiscuous assemblage ; and
this he did with such consummate skill, that he never weak-
ened his argument or made it nerveless. Men are as fond
of eloquence now as they were then ; and yet, taking the
whole professional hfe together, it may be truly aifirmed that
no man ever drew together such crowds with like power to
keep them spell-bound, without the weakening of a single
link in the chain of severe logical discussion. It was, in-
deed, a rare and wonderful gift.
It is to be deeply regretted that these two great men, so
much alike in towering strength, transparency of reasoning,
copiousness and concentration of thought and wealth of
imagination, were never brought into direct antagonism.
They were engaged in the great Bank cause ; and there, ac-
cording to Story's estimate, Pinkney was the bright pecuhar
star. But to the best of my knowledge, they were never
engaged as opposite counsel in any cause. It is a well
known fact, that Mr. Pinkney' s highest powers were always
more signally displayed in such antagonism. It was then,
that his ingenuity in the conduct of a cause, his quickness
25
386 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
of perception, his accuracy of law knowledge, his powers of
scathing analysis, his almost intuitive perception of the weak
points, and ardent spirit (that, like Napoleon's, would scarce
admit the possibility of defeat) shone out in all their strength.
When it is said that Webster stated, that he had met
Pinkney, Emmet and Wirt, but never feared either of them
as much as he did Jeremiah Mason, it should not be forgot-
ten that he had never encountered Pinkney. He had argued
by his side ; never in opposition to him. It would have
been a glorious contest, and I regret that their mutual friends
were not permitted to witness it, knowing that it would have
been conducted in a way to reflect honor upon both.
If, as I have shown, they were alike in combination of
talent (however much they differed in their idiosyncrasies of
intellect), they were not unlike in the destiny that befel
them. Neither of them was ever vanquished. They never
suffered a Waterloo defeat, although they passed the bridge
of Lodi, and scaled the passage of the Alps.
Mr. Pinkney could never be followed by a reporter. He
soon gave up the task in despair, in the fascinating spell of
the orator. And from the constant multiplicity of his ef-
forts, another consequent necessity for extraordinary ex-
ertion, unassisted by reporters, it was impossible for
him to revise and prepare for publication any of his
speeches. Thoughts struck out in the excitement of debate,
and beauties of expression and flashes of eloquence emitted
by the mind, when roused by the fervor of discussion, can
never be recalled ; and consequently, if the reporter from
any cause prove unequal to the task, the speech is lost. It
was Mr. Pinkney's misfortune to live and die, without meet-
ing the man, who could write down those splendid passages,
or even preserve unbroken the chain of his argument ; and
it is the misfortune of the lovers of true eloquence, that
such was the melancholy fact. Mr. Webster in this respect
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 387
has the advantage over all others. He has left a monument
behind him worthy of his vast fame.
Not too rapid to be followed, in the present improved
state of stenography, his speeches were happily preserved ;
and that without any great labor on his part. In his speech
on Foote's resolution, he had the advantage of a report from
the pen of the senior editor of the Intelligencer, who is se-
cond to none of his cotemporaries in the best quahties of a
statesman. It is not, therefore, possible to conceive of a
richer mine of all that is grand in eloquence, stupendous in
genius, and conclusive in argiunent, than the speeches of
Daniel Webster afford, caught up as they fell from his lips,
with the glow fresh upon them, and reviewed by himself in
the sunset of his splendid career, when not a faculty was
dimmed, nor a ray obscured.
No man can accord to the lamented Webster a pre-emi-
nence I do not accord to him. No man can take a prouder
pleasure in contemplating the rising columns of his fame,
which, " piercing the skies, is gilded by the fii"st and latest
rays of the sun" in his circuit of glory.
I have thus ventured to give to the pubHc my estimate
of the character of these two remarkable men, Webster and
Pinkney. I waved the expression of my opinion until the
facts that illustrated the latter were spread out before it.
That estimate must pass for what it is worth. For a rare com-
bination of all the elements of true greatness, they were, in my
opinion, proudly pre-eminent. For massive grandeur of intel-
tellect and granite strength, solidity of judgment and sub-
lime eloquence, they were principes inter j)ai"es. Pinkney
was Webster's equal in depth and brilliancy ; more varied
in his gifts and uniformly great in the use of them. His
oratory was more splendid and overpowering if viewed in
the aggregate ; fully its equal, viewed in any other light.
They were, however, kindred orbs, stars of the first magni-
tude. In all that is worthy of lasting renown, in devotion
388 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
to the Union, power of argument, conservative statesman-
ship and majesty of eloquence, their names will be handed
down to coming g-enerations — the first of la^T^ers, orators
and statesmen. Equalled, it may be, by some, in one or
other of those departments ; they were unequalled in the
exquisite union of pre-eminent excellence in all. I award
to them like honor and distinction; satisfied that our coun-
try will never want a title to the name of eloquence and
force of intellect, so long as either name shall survive to be
remembered.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 389
CONCLUSION.
Having caught up the true echoes of Mr. Pinkney's fame,
I may be permitted in conclusion to address a few words to
the young men of the United States ; and enforce the sub-
lime moral, which they so imj^ressively inculcate. I had a
higher object in undertaking this work than the mere desire
of paying a merited tribute to the subject of this memoir.
For although the part enacted by Mr. Pinkney in the past
history of the country, and his briUiant achievements in Par-
liamentary and forensic eloquence are worthy of perpetua-
tion ; although his name and character are a portion of our
common heritage of glory, and therefore justly entitle him to
be held in grateful remembrance — it strikes me that the
powerful influence, which such an example ought to exert
upon the enterprising youth of the present day, constitutes
the most important and attractive aim of the biography.
Example is ever more potent for good than precept. The
present receives its wisest lessons and most exciting stimulus
from the past, and the future will, for the most part, take
its hue from the past and the present combined. Youth has
always been nerved to patriotism and excited to eloquence
by the great and the virtuous, whose footprints are left on
the paths they tread. It will be so, so long as the human
soul retains its love of virtue and admiration of distin-
guished talent. The tombs of the departed great, the
mausoleums of the illustrious dead, are the best schools for
the mental and moral training of those who follow them.
Oblivion may have its sweets, and forgetfulness its charms
390 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and useftilness, but not where the fragrance of noble prin-
ciples is scenting the air, and the fruits of gigantic exertion
are clustering on the boughs. He, who strives to desei^ve
weU of his country and of xuankind, and consecrates his rich
and varied powers to the service of his fellows, is a beacon
light, set up by Divine Providence for the encouragement
and imitation of succeeding ages. It is not possible to
multiply too much the exemplars, who have illustrated the
page of history and made it glorious. Each additional star
swells the brilliancy of the constellation, and the eye never
tires in gazing upon its beauty, for to each there is its own
peculiar fascination. There is no antagonism in those cu-
mulating rays. It is one harmonious blended light, that
gathers intensity and strength from the burning splendors of
the whole.
Our young countrymen have an awful trust committed
to their charge, a magnificent present, and a future such as
never before dawned upon the world. Tlie blessings they
enjoy are not the birth aud growth of a single day. They
see the gorgeous blossom of the flower that was but yester-
day in the bud ; the mighty development of the seed that
was but just now in the germ. The United States of
America are a new star in the political firmament — a
federative government not known 'to any other confederation
of the old or the new world — without a parallel in the his-
tory of the past. A distinguished writer of England, in a
disquisition concerning the power and stability of federative
governments, of singular force and discrimination, asserts
that ours " is a new creation in politics ; that our union has
avoided the glaring errors of former confederacies — that our
forefathers studied the models of antiquity in the true spirit
of political wisdom. With a view to balance the powers of
the central and state governments, and to prevent the former
from overstepping its proper limits, a power has been there
conceded to the judiciary, which has in no other instance
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 391
been vested in that department." These United States
then, the invention and discovery of the patriots of '87, men
of the lion heart and patriot will, the cool sagacity to discern
what was best and the enlargement of soul to adopt what
they discerned, is the country of your hopes and allegiance.
Its principles, institutions, resources, power and future des-
tiny, have been long the topic of eloquent discussion. It is
history known by heart to each one of you. In territory, for
extent, richness and variety of soil ; in beauty of scenery,
and mineral resources, and eveiy other quality that could
fit it to be the fairest heritage that ever fell to the lot
of any people, whose bosoms beat high with love of liberty,
social, civil, and religious — it is unsurpassed. Mountain
and vale, woodland and prairie, bay, river, and lake, con-
stitute it the consecrated land of liberty. Possessed of every
variety of climate, from the ice-bound shores of the Atlantic
to the warm and genial breezes of the tropics, it is adapted
to the growth of every luxury that the palate can crave, and
suited to the wants and tastes of the millions who have
sought upon it a shelter and a home. Dotted over by the
footsteps of the arts and sciences with beauty and comfort ;
covered with raikoads, which j)romise in a few brief years to
form a complete iron web for the diffusion of commerce and
the propagation of light and liberty from the centre to the
circumference of its wide-spread domain; blessed with in-
stitutions, free, nicely balanced, beautifully and wondrously
harmonized, where the freedom of each is as large as the
security of the whole will permit, and the power of the whole
is so tempered and guarded that it cannot well become the
oppression of the few. — such is the land of yom- birth.
Those who inteUigently read the past and then contem-
plate the present, must feel more than ever convinced that
our growth is full as marvellous as our birth. The £egis of
the constitution now covers an immense area. The very
sentinels, who cry out the watchword of freedom on the
392 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
shores of the Atlantic, may hear the echo that sends it back
from the mild Pacific wave. These separate and indepen-
dent sovereignties have multiplied ; and each in turn has taken
its place beneath the floating stars without so much as a jar
in the glorious constellation. The weak and the strong have
been gathered into the same clustering group without so
much as the loss of a single beam, save where that beam was
voluntarily surrendered to be absorbed into the splendors of
the whole.
And yet our growth has been singularly guarded against
those dangers that foUow the widening of the bands of em-
pire, by the discoveries of science wliich have brought the
most distant States of the Union into close proximity. The
pulsations of the great national heart may be heard and felt
at almost every beat to the farthest verge of the body
pohtic.
We are a nation among men, a power on the earth. Our
influence for good or evil can be circumscribed by no limits.
Liberty in union is the true genius of our institutions, and
who shall fetter or restrain them ? Our power is in the jus-
tice of our political principles. It is a moral power, the
greatest and most masterful of all powers. Adherence to
what is constitutional law at home, and a due observance of
what is clear international law abroad, are the very elements
of our greatness. Our power is not a thing of force. Mut-
tering cannon and frowning battlements do not aptly repre-
sent it. These appendages of power we possess, it is true,
and the thunders of Lake Erie and the bloody plains of New
Orleans proclaim to all the surrounding nations, that while
we love peace and cultivate it, we know how to meet force
by force and uphold the dignity of the flag. But still our
power is pre-eminently and characteristically the power of
moral suasion, high example and noble unselfish principle.
We have had a brilliant past. We have a glorious present.
We shall have a futm-e. But what a future ? Shall it be
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 393
a future of joy and hope to ages yet unborn, or blacker than
midnight when it settles all gloomily on the fretted bosom
of the sea ?
The ship of State has passed through sea and fire. More
than once has she been driven furiously among the breakers,
until her very beams seemed to bend and crack in the shock,
and the pilot hung doubtingly at the helm.
" Ponto nox incubat atra
Intonuere poll et crebris micat ignibus astlier."
More than once has she been conducted in safety through
the howUngs of the tempest to mild waters and a friendly
harbor, where the storm spent its fury in impotency. Bright
skies are once more above her — a clear pathway before her —
calmly, quietly, and beneath the beauteous banner of peace,
she circumna\'igates the world. The true glory of a country
does not consist in a fruitful soil, overflowing treasury, well
equipped and well disciplined armies, fortified cities, frown-
ing batteries, or a splendid naval force, ships manned by
brave tars and governed by gallant officers. It does not
consist in mde extent of territory or a crowded population.
These things are valuable in the: l.^s, images of power
and where rightly used and honestly obtained images of
greatness. But they do not constitute true national glory.
The day was when we had them not — a day of darkness,
peril, fierce and desperate conflict. And yet the measure of
our glory was never fuller. Our name was for praise on the
lips of all.
The true glory of a nation consists in moral elevation, high-
toned principle, love of justice, adherence to right, schools
and colleges, the purity of her statesmen, the intelligence
and patriotism of her yeomanry, and above aU incomparably,
the vital godliness of each.
It is for the young men of the Union, thus circumstanced,
I write. I write to them because they are young men,
young in hopes, young in energy, young in the fervor and
394 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
freshness of an enterprising enthusiastic pubhc spirit. Youth
is generally represented as a sort of holiday of sunshine, a
pleasure-taking, gay, joyous, buoyant season ; when the
prisoner just escaped from the painful restraints of his alma
mater may give himself up to those waking dreams, which
Prior seems disposed in a very mockery of refinement to dig-
nify with the name of hopes. I would not take one ray of
real sunshine from its path. I would not dim one rush
candle that flickers by its way. I woidd not put into its
sparkling chalice one drop of bitterness, to mar the buoyancy
and elasticity of this sweet spring-time of existence.
Youth when virtuously spent, is an oasis in this bleak, drear
wilderness. It is the dew-drop on the trembUng leaf, the
petal of the flower not yet blown, the acorn of the oak not
yet developed. It is pre-eminently the season of hope, the
hour of visions bright and golden fancies, when the mind
may weave the garland of its future fame and regale itself
amid scented bowers and golden fruit. But youth is some-
thing more, something vastly higher, nobler, more august.
It is the period for the moulding of the immortal mind and
heart ; and gives the coloring and character to the days to
come.
It is for the young men of the Union I write. It is for
them I have endeavored to draw this character and disclose
the life of one of our distinguished sons — satisfied that every
exemplar of noble energy and aspiring character, set before
them, must tend to stimulate their eftbrts and awaken emu-
lation in their bosoms.
In his loyalty to the Union — ^in his deep and patient ex-
amination of its stupendous principles — in his awful rever-
ence for the constitution — in his broad and expansive patri-
otism that scorned all sectional boundaries, and aspired to
be coextensive with the limits of the land of his fondest love
— in his high toned, and energetic endeavor to assist in the
estabUshment of the true principle of its interpretation — in
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEf. 395
all those respects we fancy we may behold in Mr. Pinkney
an example worthy of their imitation in this day of ultraisms
on either side of the line that separates between North and
South. Like him, see to it that nothing is wanting on your
part to uphold the constitution of this Union and cause it to
be reverenced and obeyed. Look upon it as the strong bond
of society — cherish it in your inmost soul. Let your fealty
to it be above suspicion and reproach. In all your exposi-
tions of it, learn with him, while you do all in your power to
enlighten its duly commissioned expounders, to bow with
deference to their decisions, satisfied that the constitution,
constitutionally interpreted, is the law of safety, honor, pros-
perity, and peace to all. Should you enter the halls of legis-
lation or rise to address courts of justice, be ever ready to
resist by argument and eloquence the slightest encroachment
of State sovereignty on the national jurisdiction, and vindi-
cate the States from national usurpation. Like him never
approach the discussion of any constitutional question with-
out an overawing sense of the responsibility of the deed, and
feel as though your country is standing before you to be
elevated or depressed, as the constitution triumphs or is im-
paired.
In your youthful preparations for the onerous duties that
must devolve upon you as the future guardians of your
country's honor and interests, should difficulties rise up to
impede your progress or dampen your energies — should
poverty bow down your souls in the dust, and patronage be
wanting to give you confidence and inspire you with hope
— should the sad defects of early education conspire to abate
your ardor in the exciting race of honorable distinction, I
would point you to the youthful Pinkney, who was compelled
to grapple with fiercer difficulties, and alone, without money
or patronage, the snnle of friends, or the favors of the rich,
push forward his onward and upward career ; and bid you
take courage and never yield to despondency and gloom. If
396 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
endowed with genius (the real power to scale the loftiest em-
inence of professional renown), remember that genius alone
will not suffice to crown you with complete success. Like
Pinkney, you must study to be great. Close, diligent, search-
ing mental discipline must be the very aliment of your
life. Your motto, hke his, must be " plus ultra." Knowl-
edge, coextensive with the widest range of the profession ot
the law and the science of government, must be not only
sought by you but obtained, and that, too, by labor contin-
ued without intermission. You must realize what is so beau-
tifully recorded of PubHus Scipio, " ilium et in otio de ne-
gotiis cogitare et in solitudine secum loqui soletum ; ut ne-
que cessaret unquam et interdum colloquio non egeret.
Haeque duee res qua3 langorem aflferunt caeteris ilium accue-
bant otium et solitude." Never forget the lessons which
those echoes teach so conclusively, and always bear in mind,
that no matter how prodigal Providence may have been in
her gifts to you, all must at last depend upon yourselves.
Work you must, and that, too, in the close as in the begin-
ning of your professional life ; or you may never hope to scale
the summit and reflect lasting renown and distinction on the
land of your birth. In this strenuous desire and exertion to
do your best, to add something daily to the stores of your
mental resources, you must, like him, give your days and
nights to study ; so that when you arise to address juries, or
courts, or legislators, you may reasonably exj)ect to instruct
and delight them, having mastered your subject and threaded
aU its intricacies.
The benefit and importance of such an examjile cannot be
better stated than in the language of Mr. Wirt. '•' No man
dared to grapple with him without the most perfect prepa-
ration and the full possession of all his strength. He kept
the bar on the alert and every horse with his traces tight. It
will.be useful to remember him, and m every case imagine
him the adversary with whom we have to cope." Years have
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 397
passed since these words were penned, but the power of such
an example is imperishable. So far ft-om losing, it acquires
strength by age, and comes to us clothed with all the dignity
and veneration of a relic of times gone by. This ceaseless men-
tal struggle (that never so much as winked its eye, but always
marched steadily to the point and made preparation a de-
light) is less the habit of our day than it was ; and, there-
fore, there is peculiar propriety in calhng up this marked and
striking feature in Pinkney's character for renewed imitation
and study.
Above all, like him, keep your professional integrity as
an advocate unimpeached and unimpeachable. Never rest
your defence upon weak points — spurn all captious cavillings
— and when you grapple with your adversary, meet him like
a man and storm the very bulwarks of his argument.
Be it your ambition, like him, to be truly great, because
truly harned and iqjright. Aim to be what you would have
the world suppose yon to be. Let your confidence be the re-
sult of diligent preparation, and then, although like him,
you may never rise without embarrassment, you will find
yourselves more and more assured. Your pathway of argu-
ment and eloquence will be clear before you.
I hand you this simple record of a man who has been
said, somewhat reproachfully, to five in the mere echoes of
his fame. You have heard those echoes coming up from the
courts before which he plead — the public service he so much
adorned by his wise, moderate and patriotic principles — the
Congress of the Union, where he always stood forth the
champion of the people's rights, and where his eloquence
and his logic were the breathings of a conservative states-
manship— and the private walks of life, which he illustrated
by a moderation, temperance, and kindliness of heart, that
might be said, without a figm-e, to have been that chorus of
the virtues which Cicero so much lauds. You can now
judge whether these echoes be not convincing proofs of the
398 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
more than gotliic splendors of the original. Pinkne/s fame
may live for the most part in the echoes of the past. But
still they are the echoes of the great, the learned, and the
wise, who have left behind them the most undoubting testi-
mony to the wonders of his mind — echoes not of the envious
or fawning parasite, but the honest and upright, men of men-
tal enlargement and well cultivated taste, giants of the age
in which they lived. The speeches that survive him are all
fragmentary. They lost so much in the eflfort to report them,
that you can scarce discern the resemblance. Such was the
discipline of his mind and his skill in extemporaneous discus-
sion, that when fully prepared (and he never sjjoke when he
was not), he poured forth his arguments in a stream of the
purest English, fresh and gushing from the " well undefiled."
Is it hoping too much ; is it asking too much of the young
men of the United States, who are now treading in his foot-
steps and the footsteps of the other giants of his day, that,
thrilled by such glowing reminiscences of genius, patriotism
and labor, they would redeem the promise of the future and
hand on the record to succeeding ages, bright with new names,
that shall live after them ?
In a country like ours, where each citizen has his full
share in the affairs of tlie body i)olitic^ — and no one can tell
what positions of power and influence he may have to fill, —
and where in the most retired sphere he may choose to occupy
" prucul a republica," he can hope to serve the country most
eflfectually — it is his bounden duty to prepare himself by a
careful training of both mind and heart for any and every
possible public emergency. He belongs to the republic, for
the republic is but an aggregate of personal indi\dduality.
He cannot lead a solitary, selfish existence without the gudt
uf morid treason against her pride and power.
Diligence and ai)plication are tremendous levers and the
fulcrum on which they rest Ls the might and majesty of
your individual wiU. Fossunt, quia posse videntur, was a
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 399
favorite maxim in the olden time. Who can calculate what
moderate abilities will accomplish, when stured into action
and kept vigorously at work by plodding industry and steady
perseverance ? Application works wonders. Bacon has said
that " crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them,
wise men use them." " Read to weigh and consider," continues
that master mind. "Some books are to be tasted, others to
be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested."
With some such maxims in your view, and the firm deter-
mination to make the most of your powers, you must hve
benefacere EeipubKca; and reflect upon it fadeless lustre and
renown.
Shun supei-ficiahty in eveiy thing you undertake. The
habit will soon become a palsy upon your mental faculties.
Take a step at a time, and no step without a fuU comprehen-
sion of its use and aim. " Festina lente.'' Be satisfied to
move a step at a time, and rest assured that your progress
wiU be rendered thereby the more rapid and certain.
The republic expects each one to do his duty, and we
would therefore urge upon you the importance and necessity
of diligent preparation to do it well and faithfully.
Your fathers, " Patres conscripti," were wise men aU, of
the most approved patriotism, cahn philosophic wisdom,
patient study, and intense appUcation. Washington, Adams,
Hamilton, Marshall led them on in their bright career, a
career carved out for them on the blood- washed fields of the
Eevolution. They left their impress on the history of the
world — and that history must be torn to tatters before their
memory can begin to fade, and then so long as the shreds
remain, the disjecta membra will hand do^vn then' names to
confound tyrants on their thrones and rebuke the myrmidons
of despotism. Wise men will be needed, wise councils, wise
measures, for the future guardians of om' ship of State.
Patriotism and intelligence, in combination with moral virtue
400 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
and a pure Christian faith — these are the gothicand corinthian
pillars of the noble edifice.
Youi- country looks to you. Shall she look in vain ? To
uphold her ancient renown and fulfil her exalted destiny, she
craves your warmest sympathies and most substantial aid.
Will you refuse her the just demand ? None but true
hearts, enlightened minds, heroic wills can serve her as she
needs.
You are young and vigorous. There is nothing that you
may not do which she has either the right to expect or the
authority to exact. She neither exacts nor expects of you
impossibilities. Girded in by an example ever powerful to
thrill and stimulate you — suiTOunded by the monuments of
a prudence, moderation, and patriotism, that have pervaded
the land in all the beauty and impressiveness of an august
reality, she would have you only re-enact the magnificence
and glory of the past. Worthy sons of worthy sires is all
she desires you to be. She would have you imitate virtues
that have already found an impersonation on the earth, and
emulate a patriotism that knew of no measure short of the
highest national exaltation.
Aim to be real characters. There is power in reality.
This was Mr. Pinkney's crowning characteristic.
The age in which we live is an age of activity, rather
than patient, laborious, plodding industry and attention to
study. Even among professional men there is far less of the
"labor limae" than existed in the generation just passed.
There is not the same ambition to excel, the same emulation
in the path of honorable distinction. The dust actually ac-
cumulates on the pages of splendid hbraries that were
thoroughly conned by the fathers of the present generation,
who possessed no more time for literary and learned pursuits
than those who have inherited their names and fortunes, but
not their thirst for knowledge or distinction.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 401
The great Eoman Satirist thus wrote in the decline of
his country's literary and political glory.
"Indocti primum, quamquam plena omnia gypso
Chrysippi invenias. Nam perfectissimus horum est,
Si quis Aristotelem similem vel Potticon emit
Et jubet archetypes pluteum servare Cleanthes."
He rebuked those who aped learning without undergoing
the fatigues and toil of study, and flattered themselves, that
by filling their studios with the busts of deceased logicians
and statues of renowned philosoj^hers, they would merit and
win for themselves honorable and lasting distinction. May
we not, without charge of presumption, warn you against
this folly, and by the hard-eamed laurels of your ancestors,
and ours, inculcate the all-important truth, that nothing
truly great can be accomplished without intense application.
It will not do to have the images of Lord Bacon, Shakspeare,
Hooker, Taylor, Coke, Mansfield, Steward, Sir Matthew Hale,
Johnson, looking down upon us with calm beauty and inspiring
earnestness. It will not suffice to gaze upon the statues of
Aristotle, Cicero, Quintillian, Thucydides, Herodotus, as
though the cold marble would warm us into life and transfuse
into our bosoms their own bright thoughts and deeds. It
will not do to stand in the shadow of the fathers of the re-
public and feast our eyes upon their calm philosophic features.
"We must study their immortal works to emulate their great-
ness. However eagerly we may pursue the discoveries made
in science and government since their day, we must remem-
ber that these are fixed stars which can never lose their bril-
liancy or their use. Their works are solid gold, hammered
out, which must constitute the warp and woof of every
character which like theirs would aspire to like immortality.
The mention of Cleanthes recalls to mind an historic fact
of pregnant interest to the young. It proves what the heart
of oak, and iron wUl can accomplish. He was a Stoic phil-
osopher, surnamed Hercules, because of his excessive labors
26
402 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
to amass knowledge. He was so poor that he was accustomed
to get his living by drawing water for the gardens at night,
that he might apply himself to the study of philosophy by
day. It was even said of him that he wrote the doctrines of
his master upon ox bones and broken tiles for want of money
to purchase befitting materials. And we know that some
other immortal woiks have been since written on scraps of
paper picked up accidentally in the streets. The home of
genius is not in the palaces of luxury or the gardens of de-
light, but the workshops of patient and secluded labor.
Great names are enrolled, not upon the fleeting, unsubstantial
cloud, whi(;h receives its roseate hue from the hand of an ex-
cited fancy or a rich and discursive imagination, but on the
marble dug from the quarry and polished by industry and
perseverance.
We know that we are oftentimes charjred with egotistic
folly as a nation, because we regard ourselves as the world's
tnistees. But we plead not guilty to the impeachment. We
hold that this western continent is destined for the enact-
ment of a grand drama in the world's history. We see the
hand of Providence in her birth and growth. We have no
prophet's vision to read the future ; but we can sit duwn in
the light of the past and read enough to thrill and till us
with awe and pleasure. Our fathers copied after no model.
It was all their own brilliant creation ; God's blessing on
their honest patriotism, love of justice, moderation and fear
of wrong. Liberty and equality constitutionally guarded,
were the magic words they emblazoned upon their high
floating standard. They kindled a flame that still cheers the
world, amid the tlarkness of misrule and the clouds of politi-
cal superstition and antiquated error.
In handing over this precious legacy to you, are you sur-
prised that our anxiety and our fears are awakened, as well
as our patriotic exultation and pride. Your fathers will soon
lie down to die, and the floating stars will wave before their
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 403
dying eye in all the beauty of unity and harmony of their
blended rays. Her martial airs will Hoat triumphantly on
every breeze, and mingle, aS they fall upon their ear, in death,
with those other sounds that will soothe and compose them
to their final rest. They will soon cease to be actors in this
busy scene. Their last prayer oft'ered up for the country's
weal, their last deed of loyalty performed, they will pass from
off this stage of action and leave you the responsibility and
privilege of being alone in your glory. Their solicitude is for
you and yours, not for themselves. Their task is well-nigh
concluded ; their responsibihty well-nigh accomplished.
The past is theirs. The present and the future belong to
you. " The past is secure." It gives neither anxiety nor
concern. The stars and stripes cover it with glory. But
the present and the future are laden with hopes and fears.
Will you make it the heritage of good or the prognosticator
of evil ?
You have the hopes of the world in your care and keep-
ing. You are each one of you sentinels on the watch-tower
of liberty. The countersign from your lips is echoed from
the Atlantic to the Pacific wave, and the world honors and
respects it. It finds a welcome response in thousands, who
dare not whisper even to their trembling hearts the solace
and the comfort it affords. Be it your highest earthly ambi-
tion to live as men should live who are put in charge of such
a dread trust. Let your policy be just and U2)right. Culti-
vate peace, and let the repose of nations be undisturbed by
you. Suft'er the country to grow. Intermeddle not with
her inner life, for it constitutes at once her truest power and
highest renown. God, in His wise overruling Providence,
will develope her as rapidly as her safety and honor will per-
mit. Let the American name, under your guardianship, be, as
it ever has been, the watchword of honesty and truth. Her
flag, let it wave the symbol of equal-handed justice and en-
larged civil and religious liberty, the pledge of protection to
404 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET.
the rights of all and the stern, unbending, unyielding exactor
of our own.
Promote purity of morals and elevation of principle.
Frown upon vice. Revive, as far as you can, the self-sacri-
ficing habits that characterized the infancy of the republic.
Do all in your power to bring back again the period of '76 ;
and let the heroic deeds and virtues of that golden age be
your constant study and imitation.
And above all, learn to estimate, as you ought, the power
of individual influence, the force and might of individual ex-
ample. " Rivulets are made up of drops — mountains of
grains of sand." The onward rushing stream of political
power, which on this continent, and in these United States,
occasionally swells with more than the majesty and impet-
uosity of the ^Mississippi, when a flood is upon her, is only
the swollen aggregate of private views and principles. Each
gives an impetus to the whole. There is no danger so sub-
tle, crafty, and insidious in its first approaches, and after
workings for evil, as the secret conviction that it matters
not what this or that private citizen does or thinks — the
persuasion that the man is absorbed and swallowed up in the
midtitude. It is the most bitter drop of political poison ever
distilled into the cup of a freeman — it is the first weaving
of the chain of the despot on his stalwart arm. He has read
history to but little practical profit, who does not know-
that every thought and deed of each and every freeman is
incorjiorated by the mysterious law which pervades all hu-
man society into the grand aggregate ; and that the citadel
is never so safe as when each watchman, feeling her to be in
danger, is wide awake and at his post.
That my young countrymen may Hve to realize their
most sanguine hopes, and reflect new lustre on the land of
their birth; that they may be happy and useful in their re-
tirement, if they should prefer the quiet shade — and re-
spected and revered for their public and private virtues.
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNET. 405
should they he called to serve their country in the legislative
halls, at the council board, or in the courts of justice ; that
they may cultivate their minds and hearts, and refresh
themselves at the well-springs of eloquence and of learning;
and, above all, that they may be strong in wisdom, and
show themselves as men, keeping the statutes of the Lord,
and walking in His ways, and thus diffuse all around them
the fragrance of a holy and virtuous Hfe, is my most earnest
prayer. They must expect difficulties, look for trials, and
encounter many rude shocks as they traverse the sea of life.
The very castles they build in what may be called the mock
grandeur of their youth, "when life is like a summer
dream," will be soon demolished, and the solid superstruc-
ture of a sure and enduring renown will cost them many
days of anxious toil in its erection. But still, if true to
themselves, the country and the world, they will not fail to
be honored and revered as public benefactors. " There is an
intimate connection between private virtue and pubhc
greatness. The most honorable and liberal, the most benev-
olent and religious man is in the first instance, and wiU
eventually appear to have been, the best friend to his coun-
try and the noblest benefactor to mankind."
I have a deep and unfeigned veneration for the memory
of lofty talent and high-toned manly principle, consecrated
through long years of public service, by single-minded earnest-
ness and self-sacrificing labor; and if I mistake not, there is
that in the bosom of my fellow-men which beats responsive
to my own. He who erects a monument to departed worth,
and by his art and skill causes the marble or the brass to
speak trumpet-tongued to the present of the past, is a bene-
factor of his race. Every monument thus erected to lend
beauty to the streets of the crowded city, is a pillar of na-
tional security, which strengthens while it adorns the great
temple of freedom. It speaks in a language free from pas-
sion, and with the awful impressiveness of the tomb, which
406 LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY.
consecrates all that is virtuous and ennobling among men.
A monument of marble or of brass, it was not possible for
me to raise. It is not often the privilege of descent to en-
grave on the cold marble the image of a loved ancestry.
True it is, the vfoiid is occasionally cheered by the sight of
the filial deed ; and even now the American can look with
pride upon the enterjuising artist, who calmly and patiently
continues at his work, and will not abandon it until his
countrymen shall hail the consummation of the deed. Jus-
tice Story will live, not only in his own imperishable works,
but in the life-revealing pen and chisel of his son.
Mine is an humble task. To the memory of William Pink-
ney after a long lapse of years, during which his form has
neither moved among men, nor his tongue electrified them,
and when the prejudices of rivalry may be supposed to have
given place to nobler sentiments, I have erected this modest
and unpretending monument. Inscribed upon it is his char-
acter as I have studied and understand it. In the fourfold
aspect of orator, lawyer, statesman, and man, you may read
it there, I have asserted nothing without proof. I have
weighed well the facts stated. I have uniformly permitted
other lips to speak forth his praise. In my own estimate of
his mental and moral character, I have studied to be impartial,
and although it would be disgusting presumption to afiirm that
I have not unconsciously yielded somewhat to the power of
those feelings of partiality which almost always give a coloring
to our views, I can truly say, that I believe that the work con-
tains intrinsic internal evidence of its truthfulness and fide-
lity. Will any cynic chide me for the work ? He may re-
buke the rashness of the undertaking, and I bow to the sad,
though just impeachment. But the desire to rescue from
oblivion the memory of departed worth is immortal, and
none may dare rebuke it. That desire, united to the deep
interest I take in the young men of the land, is my only
LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY. 407
apology for what I know and feel, as deeply as the most un-
sparing critic of my work," to be its rashness.
Quid erit tutius quam earn exercere artem qua semper
armatus, presidium amicis, opem alienis, salutem periclitanti-
bus, invidis vero et inimicis metum et terrorem, ultro feras,
ipse securus et velut quadam perpetua potentia ac potestate
munitus ?
THE END.
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have marked the progress of European History, we think that M. Guizot
has not been equalled. His insight into, and his dissection of the causes
that led to the establishment of political institutions, and his analysis ol
the signification of great political and religious events, are clear and pro-
found, and must assist the student incalculably in obtaining a knowledge
of the history ol which he treats. The rise and constitution of the
F'udal System, of the Church, the Affranchisement of the Cities, the
commencement of Intrllectual progress in Europe, the signification of the
Reformation, are among the topics luminously explained by the powerful
talent of M. Guizot.
France has produced, within late years, some remarkable historians
and Appleton & Co. are rendering an important service to the public in
republishing their works. The study of History will be rendered more
attractive, and a clear view of principles rather than a mere external
description of events will thus be conveyed. We can recommend thii
work to every reader of History as one v/hich appears *o us indispensable."—
Tribune.
By the sam^ Author^
HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH
REVOLUTION OF 16 4 0,
From the Accession of Charles 1. to his Death Translateil by William HasilU
2 voli. I2mo. Paper cover $1 00 or two vols, ir one, cloth, $1 25.
*' It is a work of great eloquence and interest and abonndin^ with thrilling drsnwiu
iketchet." — JWjcari .advertiser.
" M. Gnizot'i ityle ii bold and ;iqcant, the notes and references abandant and reliabl*
•mIIIm work iiwoithy of an hononible place in a weU-sdected library ' — J^' HavpiCtf
WORKS BY M. MICHELET.
Published by D. Appleton Sf Co., 200 Broadway
HISTORY OF FRANCE.
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD.
TRANSLATED BY G. H. SMITH, F. G. S.
Two handsome 8vo, volumes. $ 3 50.
" So graphic, su liro-Iike, so dramatic a historian as Michelet, wo knovy not whore
else to look for. The coiintriea, the races of men, the timoa, pass vividly before yoti
IS you peruse his animated pages, where we find nothing of diffusencss or irrelevan
ey. I« is a masterly work, and the publishers are doing the reading public a servic
br producing it iu so unexceptionable and cheap an edition." — Tribune.
HISTORY
OP THE
ROMAN REPUBLIC.
One handsome 12mo. vohmie. Paper cover 75 cts. Cloth $1.
" M. Michelet, in his H'Istory of the Roman Republic, first introduces the rf adei
to the Ancient Geography of Italy ; then by giving an excellent picture of the present
state of Rome and the 8urroun<>ing country, full of grand ruins, he excites in lh«
reader the desire to investigate the ancient history of this wonderful land. He next
imparts the results of the latest investigations, entire, deeply studied and clearly
arranged, and saves the U'isducated reader tho trouble of investigating the sources,
while he gives to the more educated mind an impetus to study the literature from
which he gives very accurate quotations in his notes. He describes the peculiaritiei
and the life of the Roman people in a masterly manner, and ho fascinates every
reader, by the brilliant clearness and vivid freshness of his style, while he shows
himself a good historian, by the justness and impartiality with which he relates and
philosophizes."
THE LIFE
OF
MARTIN LUTHER,
GATHERED FROM HIS OWN WRITINGS
By M. Michelet: translated by G. H. Smith, F. G. S.
One handsome volume, 12mo. Cloth 75 cts.. Paper cover 50 cts.
'''his work is not an historical romance, founded on the life of Martin Luther
1.^ is it a history of the establishment of Lutheranism. It is simply a biography,
>.MBpo8ed of a series of translations. Excepting that portion of it which has refer-
n«H to his childhood, and which Luther himself has left undcscribed, the traoslatol
jas rarely found occasion to make his own appearance on the scene. * ♦ • * «
It is almost iivariably Luther himself who speaks, almost invariably Luther related
^jr Luther. — Extract from M. MichdeVs Preface.
THE PEOPLE.
TRANSLATED BY G. H. SMITH, F. G. S.
Ons neat volume, 12mo. Cloth 62 cts., Paper cover 38 cts.
^* Thi9 bo6:C is more than a book ; it is myself, therefore it belongs to you * *
Keeeive thou t.iis book of " The People," because it is you — because it is I. • •
, have made this book out of myself, out of my life, and out of my heart. I haT«
JeriTed it from my observation, from my relations of friendship and of neighborhood;
lave picked it cp upon the roads. Chance loves to favor those who follow out oaa
•ootiruous idea. Above all, I have found it in the recollections of my youth. T«
know the life of the people, their labor and their sufferings, I had but to int3rrogat«
«T memory. — Bxtx»a. fron Jlutiutr'a Prtfact^
LORD MAHON'S HISTORY OF ENGLANO.
D. Applelon <^ Company have Just published,
HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
FROM
THE PEACE OF UTRECHT TO THE PEACE OF PARI8L
BY LORD MAHON
EDITED BY
HENRY REEU, LL.D.,
Prof of English Literature in the University of Pennsylvant*
Two handsome 8vo. volumes. Price 35.
^r. MacatUay'g Opinion.
" Lord Mahon Has nndoiibteilly some of the most valuable qualities of a historit**
flMlt diligence in examinin:; authorities, great judgment in weighing testimony, and grMi
Uipattialily in estimating characters."
Quarterly Review.
" Lord Mahon has shown throughout, excellent skill in combining, as weF. as coB>
trasting, the various elements of interest which his niaieri&ls afforded ; he hat continued
to draw his historical portraits wirli the same tirm and easy hand ; and no one can lay
down the book without feeling that he has been uiuler the guidance of a singularly clear,
high-|irinci|iled. and humane mind ; one uniting a very searching shrewdness with •
pore and unalfected charity. He has shown equal courage, judgment, and taste, ia
•vailing himself of minute details, so as to ^ive his narrative the pictu esigueness of a
memoir, without sacrificing one jot of the real dignity of history Mis History /
veil calculated to temper the political Judgment. It is one great lesson of modesty, iijr
bearance, and charity.''
r.dinhurgh Review.
"It was with no small satisfaction that we saw a history of this perio<l annonnced
from the pen of [juid IVIahon, nor have we been dJsap|>ointed in our expectations, Hii
■arrative is minute and circumstantial, without being tedious. His History of the R«
bellion in particular is clear, distinct, and entertaining. In his judgment uf persons he if
OB the whole fair, candid, and discriminating."
F.n^lish Review.
" Lord Mahon's worli will supply a desideratum which has Inng been '' -a reatly
|Ood history of the last 1.50 years. It is written with an e;ise of style, a c .land of >h«
labject, and a comprehensiveness of view, which evince the possession o* nigh nualifica-
tioos for the sreat la>k which the noble author has propo»ed to himsc-if. Lord Mahoa
avails him.self extensively of the correspondt-nce and private diaries of 'he times, whioh
nves ono'uai interest and life to the narrative. . The authorities quoted fM
BpanUh or Fieuch details are always the original ; and we can hardly leinemher a refor
•■(W of bis Lordship's on any subject which is not to the best testimony kaswa m
■eoeuible."
Sismondi — Hiatoire dcs Franrais.
"Bar le Prince Charles Edouard, en 171.5 — nou: renvnyons nniqnemeni k I'admrabk
lAsIt de ceile expedition d.ins I'llistoire de Ijord Mahon. Toiites les relations y tarn
eamparies etjugees avcc unesaine critique, et le rccit presenteie vifinterdtd'un romai.'
Profecsnr Smyth — University vf Cambridge.
" I may recommend to others, what I have just had so much pleasure in reading m«
talf, th« History lately published by Lord Mahon. .Vll that need now be knows iti iMi
«a Two the Peace of Utrecht to that of Aix-la-Cha:ielIe, wi.l be ther» fonad. '
D. Appleton Sf Co.^s Pubhcattonx
ILLUSTRATED AMERICAN POETS,
Beautifully printed in one Square crotcn 8vo. Volume.
POEMS BY AMELIA,
(MRS. WELBT, OF KENTUCKY,)
k new enlarged edition, Illustrated with original designs by Robert W. Weir, Engraf id ra
Steel in the best maiwer.
Price 82 50 cloth ; $3 gilt sides and edges ; $3 50 imitation morocco ; $4 50 mcr. extra.
" Mrs. Welby, of Kentucky, stands in the highest rank of our female poets ; she is a tjoet —
her poems are creations, and they well up from her heart with a naturalness and proJtaion
which leave no doubt of an inexhaustible fountain. Of their popularity there is sufficient evi.
dence in the fact that seven editions, issued in rapid succession, leave the demand undiminished.
It waa fitting that such poems, so received, should be clad in the superb ouiw/ird adornment*
which are now before us — a triumph of typographic skill, to which the artistic powers of Weir
have addjd increased attractions, A more elegant, or more attractive volume has rarely ap-
peared from the American press. We are mistaken if Americans do not receive the volume
with pleasure and pride." — N. Y. Recorder.
" These poems, by Mrs. Welby, of Kentucky, are characterized bv much tenderness of feel-
ing, chasteness of sentiment, sweetness of expression, and beauty of description. Many of them
also exhibit piety and devotion which heighten the charm of her poetry. The volume is de-
lightfully illustrated with original designs by R. W. Weir." — Churchman.
" It is not necessary for us to express our opinion of the quality of the contents of this book.
That we have done frequently heretofore. The volume is eminently beautiful, and eminently
creditable to all concerned. The very numerous admirers of the distinguished poetess will find
it a casket worthy of the brilliant gem it contains." — Louisville Journal.
" Mrs. Welby's poetry has no need of indorsement ; its sweetness, and elegance, and truth-
fulness to nature, have long been recognized and felt by hundreds and thousands of readers. In
very befitting style have the publishers issued this enlarged edition. It has seven finely engraved
illustrations, from original designs by Weir. They are exceedingly beautiful, especially ' Me-
lodis,' ' The Rainbow,' and ' The Mother.' A moie elegant book of poems has rarely been pub-
lished."— Com. Adv.
"These poems exhibit great impressibility and ardor of imagination, chastened by purity of
taste and delicacy of feeling. The thoughts' are generally exalted, the language beautiful, and
the melody for the most part perfect."— JErenzwg- Post.
Third Edition — reduced in price — The complete
POETICAL WORKS OF FITZ-GREENE HALLECK,
Illustrated with Fine Steel Engravings, from paintings by American Artists. One vol., 8vo.
Price $2 50;'cloth. gilt leaves, .t3 ;"Turkey morocco, £5.
" Few American poets would bear the test of such an edition as this, so well as Halleck. OI
Jate years there has been a demand for his poems, much greater than the supply. The present,
Indeed, is the first complete edition ever published, including, as it does, the long poem of Fanny,
one of the most delightful combinations of satire, sentiment, fancy, and fun, in the lan-
guage— and also the celebrated Croaker Epistles, which are as good as the best of Tom
Muore's, with the further advantage of being difi'erent in subject and mode of treatment. The
volume is a perfect ' nest of spiceiy,' and it requires no gift of prophecy to predict for it a large
and immediate sale. About half of the volume will be new to the majority of the readers, and
that half contairs probably the best e.xpression of Halleck's peculiar genius— the felicitous union
in his mind of the poet and the man of the world. The wit is exceedingly brilliant, and every
stroke tells and tingles upon the finest risibilities of ' our common nature.' Alnwick Castle,
Marco Bov.zaris, Woman, Red Jacket, Connecticut, and other well known pieces, appear now
for the first time in an appropriate dress. We doubt not that the volume will literally 'run'
tLrough many editions." — Boston Courier.
SACRED POETS OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA,
From the Earliest to the Present Time. Edited by Rtrpus W. Griswold.
Ulustraied with Ten Fine Steel Engravings. A new improved edition. One vol., 8^0.
Cloth, S'2 50; gilt sides and edges, $3; imitation morocco, ®3 50 ; morocco, -84.
" This is a truly elegant book, both externally and internally. It is filled with gemn of M
ered poetry, culled with great care from the most inspired of the religion^' bards."
" Both tli3 editor and publishers have shown great and good taste in getting up this beautiful
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ft.-iest style of the art, and each of the numerous specimens is introduced with a brief biogra-
phical sketch, which greatly adds to the value of the work. It is one of the purest, safest, and
most beautilul gift books that a father can present to his daughter, a brother to .'lis sister, or a
kuaband to hLs wi'e."— Tribune.
u f^ V ^^^f